Metroid: The Kihunters
by Blake Wales
Summary: Samus returns from a long vacation after defeating the Mother Brain, in this brilliant fanfic of the many memorable Metroid characters! Written by John Morey. A MUST READ for Metroid Fans or new Metroid Fans!
1. Metroid: The Kihunters

** METROID: THE KIHUNTERS**

By John Morey

Edited by Chris Walden

(All similarities to Star Wars, Starship Troopers, Star Trek, or anything else with the word "Star" in it are totally coincidental)

Prologue

It has been three months since the destruction of Zebes and the apparent extinction of the Metroids. Samus Aran and Armstrong Houston have been hailed as heroes and rewarded handsomely. The Galaxy was at peace. Great War began.

At first no one noticed it. Nobody paid much attention to the planets in section Zeta. The Mother Brain had owned those for years now and they were totally devoid of natural life, so no one cared to look there. Then it struck.

* * *

It was a peaceful day on the Donian colony on Tsebnash, the fifth planet in the Calorhatt system. Chief defender Dor Coran Thun Badikarr Lipinazzer Fip walked to work on this bright beautiful day the exact same way he normally did.

Dor's job consisted mainly of monitoring any incoming traffic (there was very little), and making sure that nothing illegal was going on. That nothing illegal ever did go on Tsebnash didn't matter.

Dor Coran Thun Badikarr Lipinazzer Fip was a nice, old man who thoroughly enjoyed his job. It was easy enough. All that he had to do was sit in his chair, and rake in the credits. If he thought that his Federation salary was low, he just added another name to his own name to make himself look more grandiose, and asked. Nine times out of ten he got it. He was just thinking of adding Guback to his name when the call came in.

It was from the leader of his planetary patrols. "Sir!" He shouted over the intercom. Everyone just called Dor sir, as his name was too long for anyone to remember.

"Sir," he repeated, with a lot of static added, "There is a huge unidentified ship heading here. It won't identify itself. Should I send it off?"

"Let me have a look at the ship." Dor said. The screen went on, and a picture of a huge, round, almost Death Starlit spaceship appeared.

"State your name and your business," The Chief Protector said with as much authority that he could put in his voice. There was no response.

"Perhaps you did not understand me, I said..." Dor stopped cold. Three large laser beams incinerated all of his patrol ships. A multitude of little green fighters started to pour out. Dor Coran Thun Badikarr Lipinazzer Fip hit the alarm button, signaling the small army to come out. The enemy ships were landing.

* * *

Watching from what used to be the security of his office, Dor Coran Thun Badikarr Lipinazzer Fip watched literally thousands of large green insects make mincemeat of the space colony. For the first and last time of his life, Dor Coran Thun Badikarr Lipinazzer Fip felt terrified.

**CHAPTER ONE: THE KIHUNTERS**

Three weeks later.

The famous bounty hunter Samus Aran woke up quite early on Threeday (Known to us as Tuesday), July seventh, 2636 (Earth Standard date).

She did not want to wake up early, but her new hero status required that she did. First, Samus had been employed by chairman Keaton on a regular basis, and secondly, with her new heroic status, Samus Aran had to wake up early or risk being called lazy by the droves of adoring fans (who, by the way, were nowhere to be seen, and thus wouldn't know or care if she slept in a bit).

Today, Samus was definitely what some people would call "cranky in the morning" today. Three months of getting up before the sun had finally gotten to her. Her best friend and almost business partner, Armstrong Houston, was not aware of these facts, and stupidly greeted her with his usual hearty hello and handshake.

Well, at least he held off on the handshake from then on.

They both reported to chief officer Hardy that morning, and set out to the usual day of doing absolutely nothing until Keaton called.

* * *

Ridley's life was ruined. Completely in shambles. Just three months earlier he had been the Mother Brain's chief lieutenant, and was voted "The Most Feared Space Pirate" award for three consecutive years. Then that Aran character came in and spoiled everything.

It had all started three years earlier, with the discovery of Metroids in the galaxy. Metroids were artificially created floating life forms that absorbed and gave out energy. They could reproduce when exposed to Gamma radiation. They could evolve, too.

The Mother Brain had succeeded in capturing a live Metroid and making it reproduce, giving her a monopoly on its power. Her little plot was foiled by a rookie bounty hunter named Samus Aran who tore through their little base on the planet Zebes, fought through the defenses (Metroids included), and defeated the Mother Brain.

One year after that, The Mother Brain rebuilt her forces (They weren't really that damaged, anyway) and planned a new attack.

Samus was at that time eliminating Metroids on their home planet, SR388, and she got all of the publicity. Otherwise, the galaxy's eyes might have noticed a much bigger threat forming.

In a nearby galaxy, there was a strange race of insectlike creatures called Kihunters. They basically operated like this: They would travel from planet to planet in their huge orb ships, and colonize every planet that they found that could support them. They destroyed the rest. They also destroyed any living thing on the planets that they colonized. The Kihunters had already taken over their own galaxy, and were moving on to the next one: ours.

It was pure luck that they arrived in the Mother Brain's territory. She recognized their threat early on, and stopped them from getting out of control. She did this by allowing them several planets that she owned, and no more. Surprisingly, they agreed.

When Samus Aran returned triumphantly with the last remaining Metroid, Ridley was ordered to capture it and bring it to Zebes. He accomplished this task with precision, and the cloning began shortly. Once again, Samus (with a little help this time) ran to Zebes to stop the pirates. This time the pirates also had Kihunters on their side.

It didn't work, though. The Kihunters on Zebes were few and far between, not like the vast armies of them on other planets.

Samus Aran destroyed the Mother Brain, only to watch as the last of the Metroids died. Oh, yeah, and Zebes blew up, too. Ridley made a tactical retreat earlier, and avoided death. Now there was nothing to stop the Kihunters, and the galaxy was in danger.

* * *

In only three standard months, the Kihunters were on the move. Out of memory of Ridley's earlier charity to them, they sent Ridley a message stating that they wished for him to join up with them. Since there was nothing else, Ridley decided to give it a try.

He arrived at Tsebnash, their new base planet, shortly after it was razed. Ridley could not believe his eyes. What had once been a bustling little community was now a smoldering wreck, utterly destroyed. He decided to go on with joining them, though, Maybe the colonists put up a fight. Ridley rationalized. He knew the truth, though, and it nagged him like a knot in his stomach.

His presence on the planet was known almost immediately, with loud warning sirens going off (Kihunters used technology). After a few scouts took a look at him, their leader stepped out into the midst. He was the Master.

There was only one Master, and he was only on one base planet; all decisions went through him in the end. He was the heart and soul of the Kihunters.

Physically, he resembled a metal spider, from the waist down. He had a (Robotic) human torso, and two arms. His head somewhat resembled Venom's head with smaller eyes, if that were metal, also.

The master walked up to Ridley and surveyed him.

It spoke, "RIDLEY. YOU HAVE ARRIVED. WE ARE PLEASED THAT YOU REPLIED. COME WITH US."

** CHAPTER TWO: SCHNEIDER**

"You want us to do what?" Samus Aran was completely puzzled at this new development. Chief officer James Hardy, who was basically the police chief of the Federation, had an unusual job for Samus and Houston. Their mutual reaction was more of surprise than outrage.

"Yes," Hardy answered, "I want you to go over to Tsebnash, and try to contact the Donian colony. It's been three weeks since their last weekly report, and they have not replied to any of our transmissions.

"Then why don't you send some of your ordinary flunkies over there?"

Houston asked.

"We did. They never replied, either."

"So, let me get this straight. You think that something life-threatening is going on at the galaxy's most boring planet, and you want to send the two best bounty hunters in the entire Milky Way to check it out?" Samus asked.

"Correction. The three best bounty hunters In the galaxy."

"Then who's the third?"

As if to answer Houston's question, the third hunter stepped in.

His suit was similar to Samus', but jet black, and more streamlined. His arm cannon was also smaller and less bulky (but with just as much firepower). Samus recognized him immediately.

"Schneider," she said,

"What a pleasant surprise it is. Now please go away."

Schneider smirked from under his helmet and replied, "Why of course, my dear Ms. Aran, but is that before or after I give you the keys to the universe?"

"Just shut up."

"Everyone, please! Calm down!" Hardy shouted, before the fisticuffs would've begun. "I know that you have your differences, but please put them aside until-"

"Yes, we have a few differences." Schneider interrupted, "And I agree. Samus, why can't we just get along?"

Schneider put his arm on Samus' left shoulder, and it was all that she could do to avoid ripping it out of Schneider's torso and beating him to death with it.

Samus Aran and Locuthis Schneider were not on the best of terms. Whereas Samus Aran was the most valiant of all of the bounty hunters, Schneider was the most (for lack of a better term) scuzzy. He was a total jerk, very well-known for siding with whomever had the most money, and betraying everybody around her. A few years ago, Schneider had ruined Samus' most recent attempt at finding her brother (I'll explain that later). He did that on purpose, too. Houston also had a small ax to grind (really more of a halberd) with Schneider, and he also had to refrain himself from using his gun to make the galaxy a better place.

"Okay. I'll cooperate with him, if he'll remove his arm." "Okay. Here." Schneider took his arm off her shoulder.

"No," Samus said, "I meant remove his arm, not move it, remove it."

"Stop it, you two!" Hardy yelled, even louder this time, "You're acting like my three-year old nephew! No one will be losing any major appendages today. Samus, you may amputate his arm tomorrow."

That was enough to get them laughing, and back to business.

"Now, Hardy. I'm a little late today, so could you tell me what I've missed?" Schneider said, taking off his helmet. He was a thin, pale human with hair matching the color of his suit.

Hardy filled him in on the missing details.

** CHAPTER THREE: ARAN**

Before going any further, I must explain a few things about Samus' past history.

Samus Aran was born on a Federation colony on the planet Nadune, a planet near Zebes.

Planet Nadune was also one of the last planets to house the Chozo, a race of birdlike people. The Chozo originally lived on Zebes, but were driven out by the space pirates when they moved there.One day, a fleet of pirate ships attacked Nadune, destroying the base there. Samus was only two standard years old at the time. Both of her parents died at that assault.

Her brother, Solomon Aran, who was five at that time, disappeared and is assumed to be alive somewhere, with no knowledge of who he really is.

Some of the remaining few Chozo who were searching the wreckage for survivors found Samus, alone.

The Chozo raised her, found out her name from the records at the base.

The Chozo felt that they needed a champion to defend their people, so they trained her in fighting, and later awarded her with the now famous suit.

She left to become a bounty hunter shortly after, and has been defending the galaxy ever since.

* * *

Now that that's straight, back to the story

Samus, Houston, and Schneider each went in separate ships on their trip to Tsebnash. The trip was uneventful.

Upon arriving, the three hunters were treated to a terrible shock. Tsebnash looked desolate, wrecked, and There were no other planets left in that entire system.

Clearly something was wrong.

After what seemed like an eternity of silence, Samus spoke over the intercom, "Samus Aran reporting. How in the galaxy are we going to report this to Hardy? Don't answer that! Five enemy ships, coming in!"

Five little green needle ships tore in. Samus, Houston, and Schneider simultaneously made their ships somersault, putting them behind the enemy ships. They fired and destroyed all five.

Ten more ships came in. Followed by twenty.

There were too many ships this time. Houston's ship was badly damaged, and he had to leave, or risk dying. The majority of the ships focused in on Schneider's ship. Samus tried to come to his rescue, blasting as many ships as she could.

"Watch out! There are two on your tail!" She shouted, frying three more. But for every enemy vessel destroyed, two more came out of the planet after her. They finally got Schneider. His ship was totally disabled, and he was caught in Tsebnash's gravity. "Thirty seconds to impact, I guess. Goodbye." Was all that he could say, as his ship plummeted to the wrecked landscape below.

Samus knew when to fight, but more importantly, she knew when to flee.

Samus Aran, the fearless bounty hunter, tore away fast enough to crash her hyperdrive engines when she finally stopped.

* * *

Samus arrived back at the station no more than five minutes after Houston. They met up in the hallway, on their way Keaton. No one spoke. Houston simply gave a puzzled look, apparently to ask about Schneider, and Samus shook her head. That was all that was needed. Until they reached chairman Keaton's office.

Chairman Keaton was a normal Lonochian who just happened to be the equivalent of The President Of The United States. You wouldn't know that by looking at his office, though.

Keaton's office was a small, cluttered little area with four chairs, a desk, some filing cabinets, a computer, pictures of wife and children, and a stack of papers that never shrank.

Keaton himself was a short, green slant-eyed creature, usually dressed in a brown hooded robe.

Friar Tuck meets ET.

Both bounty hunters stepped quietly into Keaton's office, hoping to avoid major confrontation. Although the chairman of the Galactic Federation was a relatively nice guy, when he was in a bad mood, everyone felt it. And he was not happy today.

"It's nice to see you again." He started, "So, why are you here, today?" Keaton seemed tired, surely that was a good sign. Samus spoke first, "We're here to report back, instead of reporting to Hardy."

"About what?"

"Hardy sent us to check out Tsebnash."

"Oh, that. Well, how did it go?"

"Sir, there's a reason for us going above Hardy's head" Houston said.

"And that would be?" Keaton's interest was peaking.

"Sir, we have found a major threat to the galaxy. We don't know what they are, but-"

"Wait!" Keaton interrupted, "Before you go on, there was someone else with you. Who was he?"

"Locuthis Schneider, sir. He didn't make it."

"He can be replaced. Anyway, you were saying?" Apparently the chairman was in a good mood, after all. Either that, or he had an ax to grind with Schneider.

"Sir, when we arrived, every planet except for Tsebnash was destroyed totally. Also, Tsebnash itself was taken over by some incredible force. They attacked us with about two hundred ships in five minutes."

"I'll send a team over. You go back home, and get repairs done on your ships, if they need them. I'll contact you if necessary." Keaton rose up from his seat and pushed both visitors out the door, slamming it behind him. Obviously, the chairman knew that something was wrong.

**CHAPTER FOUR: DECISIONS**

Locuthis Schneider was a very lucky man.

As his ship hurtled down towards what seemed imminent destruction, Schneider felt it stop with a jolt.

At first he thought that he had just crashed, but that was impossible; his ship would be reduced to flaming rubble if he had crashed.

Then he heard the tractor beams.

Four Kihunter ships had locked on to Schneider's stingray class fighter, and were pulling it in for a safe landing. It appeared that they were taking prisoners.

Schneider was not rejoicing at his luck, though. He was madly running around his ship, desperately searching for that spare super missile battery that he kept, for emergencies.

The ship was brought in for a landing, the doors started to open.

Schneider opened fire at whatever was waiting to greet him at the doorway.

* * *

Ridley could not help but laugh at this new predicament.

The Kihunters had brought Schneider in with the hopes of recruiting him, as they had done with Ridley.

When three of the Kihunters opened the double doors on the side of the ship manually, they were quickly reduced to grease stains on the ground.

There was an immediate uproar as Schneider burst out, blasting anything that moved.

He was doing just fine until he aimed for The Master.

Schneider fired his last remaining missile at The Master, but It simply reached out and grabbed the missile in its metal claws. The Master crushed the missile as easily as you or I could crush an empty soda can. There was no explosion. The Master leaped out at Schneider, pinning him to the ground. It spoke:

"YOU ARE OUTNUMBERED. YOU ARE OUT OF EFFECTIVE AMMUNITION (Don't even ask me how The Master knew that). YOUR REMAINING WEAPONS ARE USELESS.

YOUR DEATH SEEMS IMMINENT.

"WE WILL GIVE YOU A CHOICE: JOIN US, OR DIE SCREAMING."

Jerk or not, Schneider did have morals. He screamed, "No way, you (CENSORED!)! We will destroy you! Get off me!"

"VERY WELL, THEN. RIDLEY, TAKE THIS LITTLE FRIEND OF OURS TO THE HOLDING CHAMBERS. SEE IF YOU CAN SOFTEN HIM UP A BIT."

Alone in a cell, with a pair of shackles as the extent of furnishings, Schneider had plenty of time to be softened up.

The Kihunters had taken Schneider to what probably was the worst cell on Tsebnash. It was like a black pit. There was no light whatsoever, and the stench of death permeated everything.

After what seemed like weeks, The door opened. At first it only opened a crack, sending in a small shaft of light that directly hit Schneider's left eye. Then it swung open, illuminating the entire room.

The cell looked much worse than it was. Obviously there were other people who resisted the Kihunter's generous offer.

Ridley (surprise, surprise!) entered the room. He only half looked at Schneider, his eyes seemed pointed downward.

"Locuthis Schneider, if I got your name right?" Ridley asked.

"Yeah, that's me. You got it right." Was Schneider's response, the response of a half-starved, tortured man.

" Schneider, The Master has generously decided to cut you a deal.

"He has decided that if you join Us, We will most generously not only allow you to live, but will make you a general. The Master was very pleased with your valor in battle three days ago-"

Ah, so that's how long I've been in this dunghill, Schneider thought.

"-And we believe that you have great potential. Of course, the only alternative is a painful, searing death at the hands of our best torturers."

Ridley looked up and offered Schneider a smile, his form of a joke.

"The decision is yours. You do understand, however, that when I leave, I take my offer with me and nothing that you say can ever reverse it?"

Schneider was not one to give in to evil easily, but he also was not one to throw away his life for any cause.

He thought for a moment, and compared his two options.

Schneider could either forfeit his life for the good of civilization, or he could live on in the name of Survival of The Fittest (something that he prescribed to very well). The choice seemed obvious. Whether it was good or not, there was only one way out.

"I'll take it," Schneider finally managed with some difficulty.

* * *

Ridley also had a decision to make that day.

This had been bothering him for the entire time that he was on Tsebnash. Basically, Ridley was presented with the same choice as Schneider, and he had made the same decision, but somehow he regretted it. It just didn't seem right.

Ridley had devoted basically his entire life to the usual take-over-the-galaxy motif, and generally had not given much thought to the idea of right or wrong. But now he devoted a lot of thought to the matter. Of course, this was probably due to the fact that the Mother brain never destroyed any planets, never really committed genocide, and always referred to herself in the first person (not to mention not speaking in caps).

However, right and wrong notwithstanding, Ridley didn't really have much of a choice for anything ('join us or die' does not exactly give you many options, now, does it?).

But this last incident with Schneider had gotten Ridley thinking again. What he had seen was a man who was tortured and starved to the point where he would have declared that his mother was a turnip if it would have helped anything.

Later that night, Ridley decided that it was finally time to choose sides.

**CHAPTER FIVE: THE OVEN HEATS UP**

Chairman Keaton was unsuccessful in warning the other federation heads of their imending danger. He simply did not have enough information on the new threat for it to mean anything. In fact, it was settled that they were just a few small revolutionaries, nothing at all to be worried about. Although the chairman didn't necessarily agree with the council's decision; he had to concede. If only they had acted sooner, many lives could have been saved.

* * *

The high council's decision had an immediate effect on Samus, who felt partly responsible for what had happened to Schneider back at Tsebnash, had left for an uncharted planet, a planet that is very close to the asteroid field where Zebes used to fly on its regular course.

Although this world is not named, it is very important. For it is one of the three remaining planets with true Chozo living on them.

The Chozo were once a noble race, in command of many planets. They originated on Zebes, and were some of the first to attain space travel.

Yet, they had one drawback. They were all pacifists.

Whereas their cousins, the Torizo, were violent and would attack anything on sight, the Chozo would never harm a living thing. The Zebesian space pirates destroyed billions of them. That is why, when some of the Chozo raised Samus, they trained her to be a warrior; to be

a defender of their people. That is why when the pirates attacked, Samus Aran was always there to stop them; to stop them from ending everything.

But this time, Samus was going to the Chozo for help. Specifically, to the only remaining Chozo she knew well; a century-old Chozo named Gul'Gen, generally known as the "Old Bird."

Samus came to the Old Bird for his counsel on what would prove to be the most dangerous time of Samus Aran's life.

Gul'Gen was like a father to her, being the last one alive who raised her.

She had spent the first two days of her visit just being with the Old Bird, but on the third day, she knew that she couldn't waste any more time.

Samus Aran stepped up to her long-time mentor, and asked, "Old Bird, I need your help. There is some kind of new enemy, I don't know who it is yet, who is destroying the galaxy. They've only taken one planet so far, but I have seen that planet, and it's terrible. They've totally

destroyed the planet, worse than Zebes, and I don't want what happened to you happen to anyone else. What should I do?"

Gul'Gen answered, "I do not know what you should do, daughter, but I know what you are talking about. I have felt it. It is evil beyond your comprehension. All that I know is that you must never give up, and expect help from an unlikely source. And you must leave now, or all will be lost. I do not know any further. I am truly sorry."

"Don't worry, Old Bird, It's not that bad. Is there anything that you can say?"

"Nothing on this new menace. But I have found out who your brother is. It is not my place to say, but you will know him when you see him."

"My brother's alive? That's better news than anything else that I've heard yet! If you wish for me to go, than I will. Goodbye."

* * *

Far away, Tsebnash started looking less and less like the M-class planet it once was.

Now it was a fortress of evil, reinforced with Kihunter technology. Six flame jets came out from six sizeable holes in the planet. There was a reason for those jets, but telling you would be giving it all away.

The Master was very pleased with all that was happening. He owned two planets now (the other was just attained recently), and he had a mole in the council who was succeeding in keeping the federation away from all of this. Away and disillusioned. The fire was going to spread, and no one would know it.

The Master was very pleased with all that was happening; very pleased.


	2. Help from an unlikely source

**CHAPTER SIX: HELP FROM AN UNLIKELY SOURCE**

Samus Aran returned home in a state of confusion. The Old Bird's words meant basically nothing to her. How could she use any of his advice to help with this new problem? But then, although it's always rather cryptic, Gul'Gen's advice generally was to be heeded.

And then there was this issue with her brother. Aparrently he was alive! This at least was good news. But who was he? Gul'Gen would have told her who he was outright if he didn't feel that she could find him without his help.

With these thoughts in mind, Samus Aran retired to her small apartment for some much needed sleep. In fact, she was so tired that she forgot to lock the door.

* * *

Susan Franklins was very pleased with her work over the past few days.

As official president of Earth, it was her duty to defend her planet at all times from threats, and to report anything to the Federation. Susan was not pleased with that work, though. She was very pleased with her other job.

When she received a letter from someone known as "The Master" a few weeks ago, promising her all of the riches in the universe and three planets besides if she would just tell one little white lie; of course she accepted. What politician in her right mind wouldn't? Certainly not

Susan Franklins. Certainly not. Life couldn't get any better.

* * *

Samus woke up at five in the morning again. She was suppossed to be at a meeting in two hours, and she had no time to spare. She was also too tired to turn on any of the lights or think coherently.

Somehow, Samus Aran managed to get up, find an outfit, shower, etc. and get dressed without any light (This was partially due to how tired she was).

She wouldn't need her suit today, so Samus left it in the closet.

The thought of the much-needed coffee that would wake her up this morning was all that kept Samus moving.

She groped blindly for the doorknob (The lights were still off), and when she found it and tried to turn it, it wouldn't budge.

"Ergh. I must've locked it." She grumbled quietly and turned to find the keys before a thought struck her: She hadn't locked the door last night.

This little thought was enough to wake up the bounty hunter; but when she turned around and before she could do anything, Samus Aran saw a sight that had haunted her nightmares for years: A pair of glowing, yellow eyes. The eyes of a terror.

Ridley's eyes.

"Turn on the lights." A uneasily smooth yet terrifyingly familiar voice said.

Samus complied. There was no sense in trying to fight Ridley without any armor or weapons. He was just too powerful.

Samus flicked the switch; and blinding light flooded the room. When her eyes adjusted, Samus saw who was possibly her worst enemy (With the exception of the Mother Brain) standing before her; alive and well.

He was also standing in front of the closet that held Samus' suit; blocking off that way out.

"Really, Ms. Aran, I expected more from you." Ridley started to laugh a little as he said this; a biting, evil cackle.

"I can't believe that you, the galaxy's greatest bounty hunter, could wake up, get dressed, and get ready to leave without noticing a dragon standing next to her! Well, how you could do any of that with the lights out is an even bigger question. But anyway..."

"I was tired!" Samus shouted, then scolded herself for drawing Ridley's attention away from what he was saying. There was a gun under the bed. And as Samus inched towards it, every second counted.

"Fine then, you were tired. Anyway, you are probably wondering right now why I didn't just kill you earlier. Well...!"

With that "Well...", In an amazingly quick move; Samus dove under the bed, grabbed the blaster, and jumped up with the barrel of the blaster aimed directly in between Ridley's eyes.

"I don't care why!" Samus shouted, sweating, "Just back off! I don't know how you survived Zebes, but I am perfectly prepared to finish you now! Now, Back off!"

Ridley cackled again, and calmly said, "Really, Samus, I am disappointed in you. You and I both know that that little weapon is too weak to do any substantial damage to me, and I could be on you before you let out two shots.

"Now, put the gun down. And listen."

Samus reluctantly put the blaster down, and prepared to listen. Ridley had successfully called her bluff.

"Now, Samus. I have not come to harm you, but to warn you! There is a new danger in the galaxy, and only you can stop it! Samus, please, we need your help!"

* * *

Hardy was hardly at work today. He was, in fact taking his third "lunch Break" that day, and very pleased with himself over this latest culinary masterpiece. The BLT. With a lot of barbeque sauce added. Unfortunately, this meant that he had to spread napkins everywhere to avoid unnecessary spillage.

Hey, after all; If it doesn't get all over the place, it doesn't belong in your face (Or so the ancient saying goes).

As he bit into the sandwhich, James Hardy experienced a pure rapture, a rapture only known to those fans of good food.

Hardy's rapture was interrupted by a loud knock on the door.

Hardy panicked, shoving his BLT into one of his desk drawers; and frantically trying to hide his napkins.

The knock was repeated.

"Wait a minute!" Hardy shouted, "I'll be there!"

After finally hiding the last of the napkins, Hardy grabbed the phone, and said, "Okay, come in."

The door opened, and Samus Aran entered.

"I don't care how dangerous the mission is; just send someone in right now!" Hardy shouted, slamming the phone down on the receiver. Samus couldn't help but laugh at his little ruse. Hardy was known for his love of food, and for his love of goofing off. There was also his uncanny

knack for keeping his job under all circumstances.

Hardy feigned looking busy for a moment, then suddenly looked up at Samus.

"You wanted to speak to me, Ms. Aran?" He said with all of the authority that he could muster.

"Yes, in fact. I did. I have something very important to talk about."

"It doesn't have anything to do with Tsebnash, does it? You know what the council said. It's nothing. Besides, I have no jurisdiction over any of this."

"But you can get me an appointment with Chairman Keaton. I just found out something that's very important."

"All right. I can do that. Just give me this: What did you find out?"

"I learned what our new threat is."

Hardy lost his entire appetite as he listened to exactly what this new source of danger was.

**CHAPTER SEVEN: ASSASINATION ATTEMPT**

Back on Tsebnash, the day was slowly, falling into night. Even with the slight atmospheric changes, there was still a beautiful sunset. The only real difference now was that it was all in shades of red, as though the sky were set on fire. Utter beauty.

Although It could not comprehend beauty, the Master always watched the sunsets every evening. It hoped that through an understanding of lesser emotions, It could be a more effective conqueror.

Of course, It could just dissect the brain of one of Its "recruits," but It had too few, and they were all too valuable now. It would dissect after conquering. That would be the solution.

Schneider approached the Master.

"Master, we have a problem. Ridley is missing. He has been missing for some time, and I suspect that he's..."

"WE KNOW. THE DRAGON IS A TRAITOR. HE WILL BE DEALT WITH. DO NOT DISTURB US AGAIN TONIGHT."

Schneider complied quickly. It was not wise to disobey the Master. Nor was it wise to fail It or to be the bringer of bad news.

* * *

Keaton, Hardy, and Houston knew to instinctively trust Samus Aran. She was never one to lie, and never one to believe lies, either. So when she told them that their new enemy was an insectlike race of drones that was more of a threat than any type of space pirate, they instinctively trusted, and were prepared to tell the rest of the council about it.

What they didn't trust was Ridley.

While no one doubted the trustworthiness of Samus Aran, they did not trust her informant. Ridley had very rightly been given the title of "scourge of the galaxy", and in his years as head errand-runner for Mother Brain; Ridley had been responsible for billions of deaths. This definitely did not qualify him for the "Most Trustworthy Being of the Year" award.

So, needless to say, the meeting between Ridley and Hardy did not go well.

It took all of ten minutes and eighty soldiers for Ridley to be arrested and completely chained up in a detainment cell.

It took all of ten hours for one lone black ship to fly from Tsebnash to the Federation headquarters at the Alpha Centauri station.

It was Schneider's ship.

And Schneider was not the only one on it.

"Did you really think that this little scheme would work?"

Hardy was dumbfounded. After the arrest, he and Keaton decided to interrogate Ridley. Neither of them could figure out why Ridley would try to deceive Samus directly, or why it would work, for that matter. The notion that Ridley might have been telling the truth did not occur to either of them.

So far, Ridley was not answering.

"Well?" Keaton said, "Answer! You're not going to get out of these shackles. They can hold a Glomian Blorff easily, and you, my friend, are no Glomian Blorff."

Ridley was silent. He had long given up answering.

* * *

Samus Aran walked down the hallway that led to detention cell no. 8, where Ridley was being held. She knew that he was telling the truth, and that no matter what, he had to be freed. Not that she liked Ridley, or anything. It was just that his knowledge of the incoming danger might be the only edge that they had.

Samus heard footsteps behind her. She slowed her pace, to let whoever it was ahead. Samus hated turning her back to unknown individuals whenever there was an emergncy. She had to remember not to notice this person. Looking back was usually a sure-fire way to get blasted.

She slowed, but this person never walked past her. the footsteps stopped a matter of inches from her.

Why do these things always happen when I'm not wearing my suit? she thought. But then the mysterious follower spoke.

"Hello, Samus. Remember me?"

Samus turned and faced Schneider.

"Locuthis Schneider? What are you doing here?"

Samus already knew the answer to that question. Although Ridley never mentioned him, Samus could see it in his eyes. The man was mad.

"I'm here with a proposition for you," He said, grabbing her arm, "I have just been to the halls of The Master. You would not understand that, though, but let me speak. When I crashed on Tsebnash, my life was saved by a community of creatures that defies all ideas of civilization.

They all worked in perfect harmony, as though of one mind. They were guided by a being known as The Master.

"It is the ultimate reigning force in the universe, and is now seeking to regain its kingdom." He continued with an evil grin, "And It will conquer all of us. We belong to it, Samus. But there are certain ones who are against us, and you can't listen to them. They don't want the glorious kingdom, but we do. Come with us, and you can have all the secrets of the cosmos! Even immortality will be in your grasp!"

"You're nuts." Samus said, rather calmly. Schneider grabbed her other arm and continued, apparently unfazed.

"Think about this, everything that you've ever wanted would be yours. Everything. I know The Master personally, and It will grant everything to you if you're with me. And after that, who's to say that we can't take the universe? You and me, ruling for all eternity." He leaned so close that Samus could almost taste his breath.

"Our rule would be beautiful. Us, The King and Queen of the universe, ruling together with an iron fist. What do you say?"

Samus said a lot without having to speak when she kneed Schneider in the groin, destroying the family jewels.

Samus bolted, running as fast as she could. If her instincts were right, that rat writhing in pain back there wasn't the only unexpected visitor.

* * *

"Well, talk!" Hardy was very mad. He and Keaton had been there for three hours now and Ridley still wasn't talking. Now, though, he seemed ready to speak.

"Well, I would look behind you, if I were you."

Hardy, confused, turned around and saw the largest bug that he had ever seen raising its prehensile foreleg to strike.

Chairman Keaton, who also had just noticed this, pushed Hardy away from what would have impaled his skull. The Kihunter, however, quickly made up for that lost strike by grabbing the chairman as two other Kihunters entered the room.

Two red sacs on the Kihunter's head suddenly inflated, as though filling with a fluid. The Kihunter reared its head back to spit, but was interrupted suddenly by an extremely loud roar.

Ridley bellowed like some kind of primordial dinosaur as he pulled from the shackles that bolted him to the wall. Obviously, Ridley was stronger than a glomian Blorff, because he ripped free of the wall and tore after the Kihunter.

The Kihunter dropped Keaton and unloaded all of its stored up acid onto Ridley's face.

Ridley wiped it off before it did any real damage and grabbed the Kihunter's neck. It's head popped off like a toy's.

Hardy pulled his blaster and began shooting at one of the bugs, blasting it until there were more holes in its body than there are in some cheeses. Its body crumpled on the floor.

Ridley turned towards the last Kihunter and torched it with flaming breath.

It caught fire, but didn't seem to be affected. The Kihunter, in flames, pounced on Ridley, and would have seperated his spinal cord from the rest of his body if not for a sudden missile that came from outside the room and shattered the Kihunter's head.

Samus, in her suit, entered the cell.

**CHAPTER EIGHT: INTO THE FIRE **

Schneider returned to Tsebnash in shame. Neither of his mission goals had been accomplished.

First, Ridley, Keaton, and Hardy were still alive, and secondly, Samus Aran was still alive, and fighting for the other side. He was suppossed to kill her if she wouldn't be recruited, but he hadn't counted on her reply being so, well, painful. The most that he expected was a punch on the jaw. Also, all three Kihunters had been destroyed, and their remains were in the hands of the Federation. This was worse than anything else that could have happened. They could always send more bugs, but this loss was permanent. Schneider knew well what happened to those who failed The Master. He had had to clean up the mess at times.

Schneider approached The Master in It's inner sanctum: a small room where it linked itself up to The Control, a special computer.

He entered. The Master spoke, almost out of the room itself.

"SIT DOWN."

Schneider complied.

"LINK YOURSELF UP."

Schneider noticed for the first time the small headset above the chair. He put it on.

Instantly a whirlwind of visions entered his mind. He didn't see any of it with his eyes, but with his mind. In one second he saw more than he could have seen normally in a million years.

"DO YOU SEE ALL OF THIS?" The Master spoke.

"IT IS THE HISTORY OF OUR CONQUESTS. IN IT YOU HAVE SEEN THE MAGNITUDE OF OUR WORKS.

"YOUR FAILURE HARMS ALL OF THAT."

Instantly the visions changed, and Schneider screamed in anguish.

* * *

All of a sudden, everybody trusted Ridley. Especially Hardy. It took the longest for Houston to believe what Ridley was saying, but soon he, too, trusted the infamous dragon. At least now he wasn't the only one who couldn't whistle.

Chairman Keaton waisted no time in calling another meeting, and this time he had concrete evidence: the bodies of three Kihunters.

Susan Franklins had nothing to say this time. There had been several tess, studies, experiments, etc. run on one of the bodies, and the results were very interesting.

Although they were just like gigantic insects and therefore should have been very stupid, the Kihunters obviously used some sort of intelligence.

A study of their brains showed that the Kihunters operated under a "hive mentality". That much was obvious. But the interesting point was that this hive mentalility was caused by a small implant in the brain of each bug. Another strange thing was that none of the three Kihunters

found had any reproductive organs at all. This, however, was explained when Ridley mentioned that there were several "breeders" that created the drones.

With this knowledge in hand, Chairman Keaton ordered a small task force to be sent out to Tsebnash. They never came back.

* * *

Schneider's head reeled. It had been doing so for the past two days. Or had it been three? He couldn't tell. The Master hadn't killed him, but It had kept him in The Control for longer than he thought he could stand. The fact that he was still alive meant that he was extremely valuable in some way or another.

But now, The Master had bigger fish to fry. It seems that another one of Its recruits had failed, but in a much larger way. There was another attack on Tsebnash. It was quickly squashed. The inhabitants of this galaxy are so easy to kill.

Schneider had decided to see who it was who was not long for this universe.

When he staggered out to the inner sanctum, where The Master was, he was surprised to see a stout, redheaded woman in her forties talking to It.

"President Susan Franklins?" Schneider said, "Wow! It's an honor to-"

"LEAVE."

"Okay."

Schneider quickly left the room. He was smart enough to know when to leave a room.

Susan Franklins turned and faced The Master.

"Who was that?"

"NO ONE WHO CONCERNS YOU."

"So, why did you call me here?"

As a reply, two reddish beams shot out from The Master's eyes, and turned Ms. Franklins into a small pile of ashes. She didn't even have time to scream.

"YOU FAILED."

* * *

"Samus, Mr. Houston, and, of course, Ridley, I have a job for you."

Keaton had summoned the three into his office. There was serious business to be discussed.

"As you have undoubtedly heard by now, President Susan Franklins of Earth has disappeared-"

"Oh, no! Really? I'm glad that you said that, Chairman. I must go home and tell the missus!"

"Very funny, Ridley. Please allow me to speak. Anyway, going by your description of the Kihunter's ships, we have sighted a planet killer with a fleet of fighters heading for the system (please do not ask me to repeat that). However, further reports indicate that they have bypassed that system and are heading towards the Gup system. We are currently putting together a strike force to engage these ships. We need you on it. The bounty is high. Will you accept?'

Ridley was speechless. His home planet was in the Gup system.

Samus spoke for the group, "We'll take it."

* * *

The fleet left for the Gup system as soon as possible.

Samus and Ridley had to be placed in Houston's ship because Samus had crashed her hyperdrive engines two weeks ago and the mechanics working on it were idiots (some things never change).

The fleet entered Guppen space, but there was no welcoming committee. Half of the planets were gone, too, leaving new asteroid belts in their places.

The fire had begun.

They spotted the enemy fleet near Croban, Ridley's homeworld. There were hundreds of little green ships in a perfect protective formation around a huge spherical ship.

The attack began.

The red fleet broke off and headed for the Kihunter's flank. The green ships turned out to meet them.

Houston started to pilot his ship before Samus knocked him out of the way, taking the controls. The small blue ship sped up and flew into the heart of the attack, blasting through anything that came in their way.

Ridley turned the intercom off. Everyone was shouting at the same time.

The battle raged for what seemed like hours, but was in fact five minutes until all hell broke loose.

It seemed as though the Federation was winning the battle; a lot of the enemy ships had been destroyed. But so had many of the Federation's, including three starcruisers. And the planetkiller was still just fine, its shields were deflecting everything.

Suddenly large hatches opened on the planetkiller. More fighters tore out of it. More fighters than you could imagine fitting inside the planetkiller.

Literally hundreds of ships tore out of the hatches on the side of the ship.

All that anyone could do was stare and pray.

"That's a lot of ships." Houston said in pure amazement.

"I've never seen that many ships in my life." Ridley exclaimed.

"Why are they all green?" Was Samus' response.

Ridley turned the intercom back on. A jumbled noise would be nice right about now.

There was total silence.

One single voice shouted.

"Great Sortash! What is that?"

Everyone turned and looked. Four long extensions, like long claws extended from the front of the planetkiller. A huge electrical beam connected the extensions; and four equally sized beams fired into each other from the ends of the clawlike extensions, making a pyramid shape.

A fifth beam coming from the central orb joined them. There was a huge charge, and an enormous electrical beam fired out from the ship and into the planet.

The beam blasted into the planet's core, and Ridley's planet erupted in flames, sending flaming rocks flying outward.

Everyone was shocked, the Federation froze for one lethal moment. The enemy had shown its power.

The enemy forces struck, attacking the heart of the Federation's dwindling fleet.

Samus, Houston, and especially Ridley stood motionless with terror. The Mother Brain would never have destroyed an entire world to spite her enemies. They were only knocked out of their daze by the jolt of an enemy hit.

Ridley sprang to life first, his eyes flashing.

"Get out!" He shouted, throwing Samus off the pilot's chair.

"That was my home planet!"

Samus knew when to not pick a fight with Ridley. There was more than enough rage in his eyes and voice to destroy all Kihunters. Houston did no more than make a few backhanded comments about who really owned the ship, but he agreed with Samus.

Ridley took the controls, thanking his creator for the lessons that he had on this type of ship.

Houston's ship lurched, and turned directly at the planetkiller. Ridley gunned it, going as fast as he dared. All of the shouts on the intercom were the same.

"What are you doing?"

"Get back here?"

"Are you crazy?"

"!"

Ridley turned the ship straight at the central orb of the planetkiller.

"Give my regards to The Master!"

Ridley, still barreling the ship at full speed, fired all of the ship's weapons directly into the planetkiller's core. The orb cracked, and shattered. The entire planetkiller ship sparked for a moment, and then exploded in a way not unlike the world that it destroyed.

Houston's ship, still rocketing at maximum speed, flew right into the center of the explosion...and right out the back.

"You ruined my paint job, Ridley!" Houston said in a sarcastic manner.

"But we have to hand it to you," Samus said, "You really- LOOK OUT!"

Ridley turned back toward the screen, and saw a huge piece of the planetkiller's wreckage one second too late.

** CHAPTER NINE: GUL'GEN**

Samus Aran had a headache. Not just an ordinary headache where you feel bruised, not jost a drilling, pounding, squeezing, or chopping headache, but one of those headaches that feels like two invisible knives are sticking through your eyes.

And what was the cause of this? Dear old Ridley had shown everyone his skill in flying spaceships. Sure, he singlehandedly destroyed an entire Kihunter planetkiller, winning the battle and saving what was left of the Gup system, but he also didn't pay enough attention to his

surroundings, and sent the ship barreling directly into a piece of the planetkiller that was approximately the size of the windshield (Not really a window but more of a recording device) on Houston's ship.

Ridley smacked right into it.

Luckily, both Samus and Houston were wearing their suits and were towards the back of the ship, or they would have had more than headaches. Ridley, however, was not wearing a suit, and he was right in the pilot's seat, too.

All three were knocked unconscious and they were salvaged by the cleanup crew.

Currently, Samus didn't know anyhing about what happened to Ridley. All that she knew was that they hadn't found a scrap of him in the wreckage.

So, as far as anyone was concerned, Ridley was space dust.

Houston's ship was completely totalled. There was no chance of it being repaired. Keaton promised that he would reimburse Houston for it, but until then he would have to fly with Samus on any future missions. Keaton also assured them that their paycheck for this mission was going to be absolutely huge.

But there was a lot more work to be done in the meantime. Galactic war had been declared, and we needed all help possible.

* * *

The Master was furious. It had just lost one of its planetkillers, but more importantly, It had lost a battle. It had never lost anything before, and this worried It. The fact that It had reason to experience worry for the first time ever was also unsettling. What if It were destroyed this time? It's robotic body could be destroyed without affecting It's existance, but if someone were to find out how to truly destroy It, then It's perpetual existance would truly be in danger. It must guard Itself, at all costs, then. It liked to think that It was eternal, but It knew that that was false.

The Master's train of thought was broken as Schneider entered the inner sanctum.

"WHY DO YOU DISTURB US?"

"I have been thinking, my Master."

"THINKING OF WHAT?"

"Thinking of retaliation for this defeat. Samus Aran will be a problem for us in the future, I know of a fool-proof trap that will either kill her or destroy her Morale. There is an uncharted planet nearby. My plan is-"

* * *

"Hey, Samus! How's your head?" Houston shouted from across the hallway.

"Fine, if you'd stop yelling," Samus replied, "Come over here."

Houston complied. Samus started talking.

"Armstrong," Samus said, calling Houston by his first name, "I've been thinking. We only fought a small fleet back there, and they nearly destroyed us. There's no way for us to win this war by might alone. The Kihunters have more than a galaxy at their command, and our numbers just

can't match that.

So I've been thinking. Since we can't use brute force and expect to win, why don't we use wisdom? I know that probably even chairman Keaton doesn't have enough wisdom to stop them. But I do know someone who does."

"Gul'Gen?" Houston asked.

"Yes, the Old Bird. We'll have to set out soon, though. His planet is dangerously near Kihunter territory, and I fear for his life. Although I am sure that he can defend himself if necessary, the old bird cannot kill. It's not in his nature. My ship's finally been fixed. I'm going, whatever you say. Do you want to come with me?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"No."

"Okay."

* * *

Gul'Gen knew that the end of his residence on this uncharted planet was coming to a close. He could feel the flying, green death as it came. He could see the ships flying above the horizon. But he did nothing. Yet. He did not need to.

For there was another.

He felt the presence of the other almost as soon as he arrived. The other kept out of sight, but Gul'Gen knew that his presence was not threatening, but that the other did not wish to be seen.

Then the great evil came.

Gul'Gen knew that their proper name was Kihunter, but to him they would be the green death.

They came the first night, but Gul'Gen sensed the other more strongly, and in the morning, Gul'gen found the dismembered bodies of several Kihunters.

Gul'Gen thanked the Holy Creator for the other. Just as a snail cannot fly, a Chozo cannot kill. Gul'Gen was simply incapable of it.

That afternoon, he felt the presence of the other, fighting the green death. They circled his meager hut, with a strange human leading them.

The Kihunters advanced. Gul'Gen raised his staff, and fire burst from the ground, driving back the forces of darkness.

Several Kihunters suddenly fell to the ground, writhing in agony. A huge circle of flame enclosed the enemy.

The human stepped forward. Gul'Gen recognized him from Samus' descriptions of Locuthis Schneider.

"Old Bird, you are defeated," Schneider said, "Even though you may be able to drive the drones back with your magician's tricks, I know your secret. You cannot kill. We only have to wait you out, and you will be destroyed."

"Yes, it is true that I cannot kill. But hear this," Gul'Gen said, pointing to the ring of fire that now encircled them, "Do you see this ring of flames? If I die, this ring of flames will close in, destroying all of you. "In that way you will destroy yourselves. Do you wish for that to take place?"

Schneider looked worried.

"We do not care if we live or die, so long as the mission is accomplished." Schneider was not being sincere.

Before anything could happen, though, something new appeared. Samus' ship swooped low, firing its weapons into the crowd of insectiods below. A huge confusion started, some of the Kihunters jumped into the flames, incinerating themselves (that should show you how hot that ring of fire was).

Gul'Gen swung his staff hard across Schneider's chin, knocking him out cold. The break in concentration caused the ring of fire to die. The Kihunters swarmed after Gul'Gen. But then the other came. Samus and Houston had just landed the ship when they were completely dumbstruck by what they saw. Ridley had come from out of nowhere and entered the fray!

The dragon flew over most of the Kihunters and snatched the Old Bird out of the crowd. He was injured, but okay.

Ridley flew into Samus' ship, carying Gul'Gen with him.

The yellow ship sped off into the stars.

** CHAPTER TEN: TAKING THE OFFENSIVE**

The four of them flew directly to the Alpha Centauri orbiting space station. Do not pass Go. Do not collect two hundred dollars. Both Samus and Houston were totally confused at this point, but both of them understood enough not to let Ridley near the flight controls. Not for one moment. Both Gul'Gen and Ridley were silent during the trip home. This added some uneasiness. Ridley's face looked somewhat more scarred, and one of his wings was damaged from a Kihunter talon. It was a miracle that he could fly as much as he did, with a chozo in his talons.

It was only after their return to the station that Ridley told what happened to him.

As it turned out, although Ridley was injured when Houston's ship hit the piece of wreckage, he wasn't knocked unconscious like everyone else.

Ridley had known of Gul'Gen for years, and he decided that the Old Bird was in danger. When he arrived, Ridley coudn't bring himself to come near Gul'Gen, and he kept a safe distance from him. Ridley had found himself to be almost a guardian angel for the ancient chozo.

It was about then that the Kihunters tried the full assault and Samus arrived.

* * *

The battle was over as quickly as it had begun. Well, begun is such a strong term. Really, several small fighters just bombed the Alpha Centauri space station into the stone age, and left.

Samus ran down the ruined corridors of the station, searching for a particular person. A very particular person.

She reached Medic section B, where they treated patients who had almost recovered. The patient in question was not recovering from much, but was stuck there, nevertheless.

Samus entered the waiting room, and found exactly who she wanted walking out happily cured (Ridley, of course!).

She ran up to him and commenced throttling.

Knocking Ridley onto an empty gurney, Samus proceeded with a classic Aran-style interrogation.

"Ridley!' She shouted very loudly, "What do you know about the Kihunters! Say it!"

"Fool! I told you everything!" Ridley said, easily (Dragons are very hard to throttle) "What do you expect, a full description of The Master?"

"Yes, actually," Samus loosened her grip at the request of a nearby nurse, "You've been holding something back. I don't know what it is, but it's been killing us. When I find out what it is, I will personally mount your head on my wall!"

"Temper, temper, Ms. Aran," Ridley got up off the smashed gurney, "You know, if you would stop being so pessimistic, you might finally see me as I really am: An ally. Now, please stop harassing me, I don't want to spend any more time here."

Ridley pushed Samus out of his way and left.

Samus watched him leave. Just like a snake, Ridley old pal. She thought, then went back to life as usual.

* * *

"Clearly we are outnumbered," Chairman Keaton began another meeting, "The Kihunters have the manpower necessarry to completely destroy us; and they also use a hive mentality, thus making them unstoppable. Their latest attack obviously was only a warning. Right now we have a grave choice before us; We can either surrender to this new threat, or we can take a stand here-"

"Oh, will you just shut up!" The Corncilian ambassador shouted, "I'm sick of your speeches, chairman! Just say it plainly! We can either live, or we can die! As for me and my home planet, we are surrendering! Life is better than death!"

The ambassador got up and left. There was silence for a moment. Then Keaton got back up and spoke again,

"Fine! Leave! I don't care! I would rather die for the cause of good than live for evil! You are a fool! Come on, everyone! We must take the offensive, and we must take it now! Whether we live or die does not matter, all that does is that we can say that we fought for what we believe in, we fought against the forces of evil, and we did not shrink down! So, come with me; take the offensive! Fight! Who's with me!"

One by one each remaining ambassador got up and left the room, leaving the chairman alone. Apparently taking a stand is not well valued.


	3. In the watches of the night

** CHAPTER ELEVEN: IN THE WATCHES OF THE NIGHT**

It was a good thing that James Hardy missed the council meeting. Seeing everyone else leave like that probably would have given him a heart attack.

Actually, he was in his quarters, praying desperately that somehow he would be given the strength and wisdom (two things he lacked) to fight the Kihunters.

Houston was looking over what was left of his quarters, and secretly wished that he hadn't bought that window apartment.

His living space was not hit directly by a bomb (If it had, it would not be there), but one of the explosions destroyed the entire place from the inside out. Luckily, the exterior wall as not ruptured, and a lot of it was still salvageable. But still, Houston did not relish the fact that not only was he using a rental ship, but he would probably have to live in a hotel for a while.

Chairman Keaton entered his totally untouched home and greeted his wife and children with a little less than his normal enthusiasm. With the exception of his family and a few close friends, Keaton was totally alone. There was no one who was with him. Everybody was marching towards destruction with open arms, as though their mothers were giving them teddy bears.

Didn't they understand? Couldn't they see that this new foe was not the type to take prisoners or accept surrender? Chairman Keaton finally managed to find some consolation in that incredible comforter, sleep.

* * *

Samus returned to find her apartment to find it to be a complete wreck. Good, the assault didn't damage it at all, she thought, Someday I'll have to clean this place up.

She made a routine check for monsters under the bed (Ever since that Ridley incident, she had been more careful about that), and dozed off before she reached the pillow.

Gul'Gen didn't necessarily like the apartment that the Federation gave him, but he had to make do. There was just too much technology. Although he praised Ridley's courage in saving his life, Gul'Gen secretly distrusted him. It wasn't based on anything solid, but how Ridley was always there at just the right place at the right time was uncanny. What was the worm up to this time? Ah, well. All will be found out soon.

Ridley entered his Spartan quarters. Now that he was out of that miniature hospital, he could get back to business.

He pulled out a small laptop and typed a few archaic letters from his original language.

A picture of the master appeared.

"Look, sir, I do not know how long I can keep this up. Samus is on to me, and suspicions are mounting among others. Help me here."

"YOU HAVE GOTTEN ALL OF THE HELP THAT YOU WILL EVER NEED. HOW YOU USE THAT HELP IS UP TO YOU. WE SENT YOU HERE TO BE AS OUR HAND, AND YOU MUST LIVE UP TO THOSE STANDARDS. OTHERWISE... YOU KNOW THE CONSEQUENCES."

The computer shut off by itself, and Ridley breathed a nervous sigh. Putting a stake in every claim is much harder than it looks.

**CHAPTER TWELVE: PROJECT CEERN(I)**

The sun rose again on Tsebnash. Yippedey yay. The sky turned red early and stayed that way. Whoop-tey fizz. Slowly activity on the planet started up again. Yadda yadda yadda.

Locuthis Schneider was not impressed. In fact, he was absolutely bored. Nothing big had happened in quite a while (nothing that he was involved in, at least), and he was starting to tire of The Master's perfectly consistent personality. But then, today, he would have been happy if he had so much as that.

Yesterday Ridley alerted the possibility of his discovery, but this had gone basically unnoticed. The Master was currently preoccupied with something secret, and Kihunters are not good conversation partners. If only The Master would crawl out of whatever little hole he had hidden in, and start something!

As if on cue, a door opened in the cliff side behind Schneider, and you-know-who stepped out in his full stereotypic-villain glory.

"SCHNEIDER. COME." Not much for subtlety, was he?

Schneider made a clumsy about-face and replied in the usual form response.

"Yes, Master." He almost felt like slugging whoever it was who told The Master to require everyone to say that same phrase before obeying an order (he suspected Ridley).

"YOU ARE REQUESTED TO WITNESS THE TRIAL RUN OF PROJECT CEERN."

"What?"

"YOU WILL KNOW SOON."

Before Schneider could think of which alien alphabet had Ceern in it, he was rushed through the planet's vast network of caverns, down beyond his normal security clearance, and into a small observation room looking in on a relatively dark cavern.

Several little guys in white coats (the tradition prevails) were already there, and one of them greeted both with too much exuberance.

"Welcome! My Master, and you (whatever your name is)! I am pleased to report that project Ceern is ready for a trial-"

"I know, we know, just get on with it!" Schneider snapped. Someone missed his coffee this morning (and probably gave it to that little tech guy).

"DO YOU HAVE A TEST SUBJECT?"

"Yes, sir!

"THEN BEGIN."

* * *

Corporal Phil Maynard waited patiently in his cell, rehearsing his speech on how he would never give in, never betray his galaxy, yadda yadda yadda (I love that phrase). 

Up until a week ago he had been leading fleets of ships against the Kihunter threat. Up until a week ago he had been fearlessly defending Mother's apple pie.

Then he stepped in to one of the most obvious ambushes possible.

Well, he wasn't going to give in to their interrogation, that was for sure.

So why hadn't they interrogated him yet? Why had they simply kept him there, regardless of the fact that he had valuable information in his head?

He got his answer.

The cell door opened slowly, revealing two Kihunters, and some sort of lumbering humanoid.

"Master says you're to come." Not a very articulate humanoid, but a humanoid.

The Kihunters unchained Corp. Maynard, and he thought for a second about running for daylight. Of course, he would have made it about three yards, so that thought was quickly abandoned.

They led him for what seemed like forever until he was quickly thrust into a relatively dark room with a very large mirror (I wonder what that could be for?).

He stood for a while in silence, wondering what he was supposed to do.

Then he heard it.

A tiny shriek, nothing much, but still an audible shriek. Something swooped low past his head, but flew away before he could get a good look at it.

All thoughts of bravery aside, Corp. Philip Maynard threw himself into the one-way mirror, trying to break it. He failed miserably.

The shriek went about an octave lower, and he turned around to see what caused it. He let out a small yelp. As the new horror closed in upon him, he screamed, over and over again:

"NOT POSSIBLE! NOT POSSIBLE! NOT..."

* * *

Schneider, watching this, looked over at The Master and inquired, "How did you do that?" 

"MODERN TECHNOLOGY." was his answer.

Maybe it wasn't going to be a boring day, after all!

"So, What's the news on Iornat?" Samus asked Keaton.

The chairman looked grim. "We have managed to keep the first wave of Kihunters at bay, although the situation looks bleak when they return. What were you expecting? You and I both know that we're losing this war, and the best that we can do is hold them at bay."

"Well, I could pull one of those famous solitary misions to the planet."

"Don't even think about it. Tsebnash has more security than you could dream of. Besides, remember how your last mission went."

Samus could not help but remember. She had been sent to rescue the last Metroid, but failed completely. Although she had been hailed as a hero for finally destroying the Mother Brain, the hatchling had died. All of the Metroids had died. Their remarkable ability to produce energy was gone forever. She knew what a mission to Tsebnash would probably mean.

"Look, right now I don't care if I survive. All that I care about is the outcome of this war. Over the last few months it's become obvious that if we lose, there won't be much of us left to start a revolution in the future. We have only one shot at this, and frankly I don't care if I have to give my life in order to do it!"

A voice came from the doorway. "Very heroic, but I don't think that it will last you."

They both turned around.

"Ridley!" Keaton said.

"In the flesh," He replied, "I'm just here to give you the latest news on Iornat. It seems that the Kihunters returned with twice their earlier army. I'm sorry to say that we've lost another planet."

"What?" They both shouted in unison.

"Hey, don't shoot the messenger," Ridley said quite calmly, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to leave now. Go now, fight well, and whatever else you want to believe. Ciao!"

After Ridley left, Keaton turned towards Samus.

"Follow him. I don't trust him anymore." Keaton whispered.

"You mean that you actually trusted him?" Samus said in moderate surprise.

* * *

Ridley went from Keaton's office back to his quarters. He checked to make sure that he wasn't followed, and shut the door (with about ten locks). 

He pulled out his little laptop computer and contacted The Master again.

"Look," he said, dispensing of all formalities, "I need some help here, perhaps a few more moles in this group. I think that I'm losing their trust, and without that this entire part of the plan is going to fail. What do you want me to do, anyway?"

The Master didn't respond. His face disappeared from the moniter, and as a reply to Ridley's message, the computer let out a series of shrill beeps, slowly speeding up.

Ridley let out about fifteen expletives as he tried to find somewhere to dump his old computer.

He opened the garbage chute and dumped it in. He waited for approx. ten seconds before hearing a muffled boom erupting from the waste-disposal unit below.

"Now what am I supposed to do?" he muttered to himself.

"Give up." came a voice from behind him.

Ridley turned and found himself looking down the barrel of Samus Aran's arm cannon.

"Keaton gave me full access to your room," she said, "I'm not even waiting for an explanation."

Ridley threw her aside like a rag doll and went for the door.

He heard the sound of two wave beam blasts being shot.

The first hit the wall beside his head. The second hit him squarely in the back.

Ridley felt it burn the area between his wings with pure agony, and tripped on the doorjamb.

Samus stepped beside him and leveled her gun to his eye.

"Move and all that Hardy'll find will be shoelaces."

"I don't have shoelaces, you dolt!" Ridley shouted, as he threw Samus again and took off once more. He took to the air despite the slowly-numbing pain in his back.

He ripped off a ceiling panel and set the insides on fire.

Let's see if you can handle a conflict of interest, Sammy girl!

The entire portion of the ceiling erupted into flame. That's the easy thing about space stations: you just have to know where to hit them.

Samus ran out of Ridley's quarters, saw the fire and hesitated for a moment. Fugitive, or electrical damage?

As she fired her ice beam into the flames, Samus thought for a minute, and realized that people like Ridley can't stay hidden for long. He'll show up. And when he does, Samus finished her thought by shooting a hole in the wall.

**CHAPTER THIRTEEN: FAMILY TIES**

"What on Earth happened here?" Houston tended to use phrases that originated on Earth. He did, after all, grow up there. His accent, though, was relatively indiscernible. It sounded like an average American accent.

"A rat slipped out of his trap," Samus almost growled, "How could he do this to us?" Her tone was rising, "Doesn't he see that he's dooming the entire galaxy by doing this? And he's not helping himself, either. I heard his conversation with The Master, and it doesn't seem as though

Ridley has any job security there, either.

"Houston, I hate that dragon!" She was shouting now, "Beyond anything else that I've known before!

"I mean, at least the Mother Brain tried to hold the Kihunters back!" Her tone changed noticably.

"The next time that I see Ridley, one of us will die."

Houston stepped back a little.

"Then I guess that I'd better not wear that dragon suit on Halloween!"

"On what?"

"It's an Earth holiday. You wouldn't know."

Samus laughed. She couldn't help it. Armstrong Houston's humor always

got her laughing.

"It it anything like that Christmas you keep mentioning, Army?"

"Army?"

"It's everybody's nickname for you. You wouldn't know."

Samus walked away, leaving a puzzled Houston in the middle of the hallway.

"Army?" He repeated to thin air, puzzled.

"Nah." He finally let out and tried to catch up with his friend.

* * *

Gul'Gen spent the day in meditation. He could not believe that he had been fooled. As an old Chozo priest, he could always tell the innermost heart of any living creature. So why had it failed this time? He did remember seeing some darkness in Ridley, but not this much at all. Were his abilities failing? What was happening? He did know one thing, though. It was time. It was finally time to tell the truth.

* * *

The Master had lost interest in comprehending "beauty." Now that It was winning everything, nothing more mattered. Three more systems had fallen in as many days. Schneider didn't seem bored anymore, at least, even though he hadn't left the planet since that last incident. 

The Master was hooked up to The Control, a facade for its other person.

The Master was a dual person.

One part physical, one part mental.

The Control was set up to house the mental part.

However, even if you destroyed The Control and the body, The Master

would still live on. There was only one way to do that, and that little feat was beyond any mortal.

The idiot dragon did not matter anymore. He was evidently lost somewhere in space, and would be dealt with later. All that mattered was the next goal: the beginning of the end.

The Master was through playing. It would end soon. And when it ended, The Master would stand on top of the fallen, and claim the galaxy as Its own. Then would come the next galaxy. And the next. And then the next.

Soon The Master would finally own what was Its given right, anyway.

Schneider entered the Control Room, fully suited up.

"What do you want from me now?" He was slowly losing that wonderful tone of respect. No matter. It is easy to reinstate those feelings in any human individual; weak little frogs.

"YOU ARE REQUIRED TO GO BACK TO THE HOME OF THE IMPORTANT GREEN PERSON AND DO A FEW FAVORS FOR US."

"So you want me to go to the Alpha Centauri station and kill a few people."

"PRECISELY."

* * *

Gul'Gen walked up to Samus Aran in the hallway. He didn't know how he knew, but he knew that now was the exact time to tell Samus who her brother was. The Old Bird was completely aware of the inherent corniness of the situation, but didn't care. He had a family to reunite. 

He walked up to Samus, "My child, I have something for you."

Samus turned around and stooped a bit to be at eye level with her old mentor.

"Yes, Old Bird? What is it?" She said sounding like a little girl listening to her father speak.

Before Gul'Gen could answer, however, several alarms sounded. Some very clumsy intruders were on the station (no one with a hint of carefulness would trip the alarms)!

"Sorry! Have to go!" Samus said, almost while running. Ah, well. There was always tomorrow.

She was on her way back to her apartment to suit up when she ran in to a really familiar face: Locuthis Schneider.

"And just what do you think you're doing?" Samus asked.

"You'll see," Schneider said.

* * *

James Hardy sat in his office, reading Sandwhiches weekly, (explanation unneeded), and eating something very similar to the article of food on the front cover when the alarm sounded. 

Hardy put down the magazine, grabbed the gun under the counter, and waited.

Before long three Kihunters burst in, and only then did Hardy realize the amount of trouble he was in.

Chairman Keaton was already cornered by the time the alarm sounded.

* * *

Armstrong Houston was already in his suit when he heard the alarm, and he was currently fighting off bugs without number, thinking, Where is Samus? over and over again.

* * *

Schneider took a step closer to Samus. 

"My offer still stands." He said in a very smooth manner that made Samus want to throw up.

Samus took a few steps closer to him.

"What do you want the answer to be?" She said also very smoothly.

"I would like you to come back to Tsebnash with me. It's getting very lonely there. I could really use someone to..."

Schneider stopped. He hadn't fallen off the hay wagon yesterday. Unless Samus was on drugs, she wouldn't be answering him this way.

Samus moved a step closer, "Oh, don't worry," she said, moving a lot closer, "That's fine by me."

Schneider gave up all common sense and put his blaster back in its holster. He grabbed Samus by the shoulders and attempted to kiss her, only to find that a very sharp pain, much like the one last time, was slowly traveling up his body. He had fallen for it again.

Samus Aran took Schneider's gun and used the barrel to push him over, where he remained for the next five minutes, wondering if you stop feeling the pain once you've been hit there enough.

* * *

Houston turned and blasted three more Kihunters, amazed at how many there were. 

After making sure that the last one was not even twitching, he turned around ad met one approximately three inches from his face.

It hissed slightly. Houston could smell its acid breath.

He immediately raised his arm cannon to shoot, but the Kihunter grabbed it and forced it back down.

It picked him up by the shoulders. Houston tried to utter a muffled scream as one of its arms pierced his shoulder completely through. The pain was intense.

It pulled its arm out, producing even more agony than before. It raised the arm again, aiming for his head.

Houston silently uttered one last prayer before the arm came down. Hard.

But instead of impaling Houston's head, the Kihunter's arm went into the floor. The Kihunter itself slowly realized that it had no head and followed its arm. Behind it was Hardy.

"Hardy?" Houston coughed out, "What are you doing here?"

"Saving your life," hardy said as he lifted Houston up and carried him out of the fight.

* * *

Samus stepped out of her apartment. She was in her suit now, and ready to liquidize anything in her way. 

She set her beam to hyper, and got to work.

* * *

If only she had known the Kihunter swarm's actual purpose. 

Several Kihunters with something strapped to their backs entered what was formerly Ridley's quarters (it hadn't been cleared out yet), and lined up along the walls. One of them took the center.

Ten seconds later, there was a huge explosion, and the remaining Kihunters (including Schneider) left without any more business. They were finished with their little piece of business.

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN: THE DISK**

"Okay, everyone! Damage check!"

Keaton was not in a mood to wait to hear everything slowly. After he shot down four of the Kihunters, he felt kind of rushed.

"Minor damage to the station, seventeen soldiers dead, and one injured."

"Does he have a name, Hardy?"

"Armstrong Houston, chairman. Luckily no bones were broken. It's just an incredibly huge flesh wound. Won't last long."

"We also found something else, sir," Samus added, "Ridley's former quarters were decimated."

"Good. I was wondering how we were going to clean that mess up. But why would they want to destroy that room and not the others?"

Chairman Keaton already knew the answer, and did not need Samus to explain.

* * *

Samus and keaton entered Ridley's room. 

"Are you sure that you want to come in here. The remnants might still be dangerous."

"And your point is?"

"Got it."

The searched for a while through the rubble before declaring it all worthless.

"It's all destroyed. All of it," Samus finally said in frustration, eyeing the burnt up remains of everything, "Whatever could've been of any use before is now..."

She cut herself off. Below he, on the floor, was a single yellow computer disk that read; SAMUS (In Ridley's messy handwriting).

Something had survived (hee hee!)

* * *

Samus loaded the disk into the computer. Keaton, Hardy, and Gul'Gen stood near he, to read whatever was on it (Houston was still in the hospital). 

It was a single message that read:

Samus Aran,

Under the circumstances in which you would be reading this, either you have just attended my funeral, or currently you do not like me right now. That is understandable, as I am a depraved little rat (an Earth creature; ask Houston).

Somewhere around twenty-three years ago (forgive me if I'm wrong) I was leading a small group of Zebesian Space Pirates on a raid of a nearby planet. The goal was simple: Wipe out the Federation settlement there.

Shortly after we accomplished our little endeavor, I personally returned to that planet to check for survivors. There were two. A young boy and a young girl.

The girl was already taken care of by the Chozo, so I paid her no heed. The boy (in one of my rare fits of kindness) I took to the adoption center on Earth.

From time to time I have checked on you both, amazed at how quickly you found each other without even knowing it.

That little boy was Armstrong Houston.

Samus Aran, your brother is Armstrong Houston.

Armstrong Houston is Solomon Aran.

There I've said it, and now you know. I suspect that the Old Bird knows, too. Not much escapes him. Do not tell Houston just yet, but promise on my grave (I am pretty sure that this is at my funeral) that you will tell him eventually. Promise an old sinner that, at least, and let his soul rest.

Enclosed is some coded information on the Kihunters and their illustrious Master. I am sure that you will find a use for it.

Sometimes I wish that I could give you my best wishes,

Ridley

Samus sat at the computer monitor in silence for several minutes. She looked towards Gul'Gen,

"It is true," He said, "I saw it happen. I was about to tell you, but the alarm sounded."

Samus did not show any extreme emotions, but a single tear ran down her cheek. She knew. She finally knew.

Half of her wanted to run straight out to Houston's hospital bed and tell him, but then she realized why Ridley told her to wait.

If he knew now, he would be too distracted to fight, and fighting the Kihunters was the top priority now.

Still, she wanted to tell him as soon as possible.

They all sat in silence for a while.

**CHAPTER FIFTEEN: C-1418**

Look at what I've done, Ridley thought to himself, I've betrayed everything. And why? For my own personal survival. I am probably responsible for the deaths of millions now, and why? because I can only look out for myself.

Ridley was currently situated on an asteroid, hidden from everyone and everything around him.

Now you've done it, he thought again, you could've become someone, saved everybody. But no, you had to put a stake in ever claim, didn't you? You know what, Ridley, you're nothing but a worthless peace of slime mucking up the works (I could use more creative English, but I won't). You're only purpose is to destroy, to ruin. The universe would be better off without you.

The universe would be better off without you.

The universe would be better off without me.

I hate myself.

Ridley contemplated ending it all right there, alone in the dark. Alone.

* * *

"Master, you should do something about him!" 

Schneider protested for the fourteenth time about the fact that The Master had let Ridley go completely.

"He could be dangerous to us right now!"

"HE IS OF NO MORE CONCERN TO YOU THAN HE IS TO ME. HE WILL SIMPLY CRAWL INTO A HOLE SOMEWHERE AND LEAVE US ALONE. KNOWING HIM, HE WILL KILL HIMSWELF BEFORE THE WEEK IS DONE. WE HAVE NO TIME FOR FALSE LEADS. THE END IS SOON."

"The end of what"

"THE END OF EVERYTHING."

* * *

"Do you think we should tell Houston?" Hardy asked. 

"No, this might be fake. There's no sense in getting his hopes up."

Samus seemed cold, disturbingly so. She seemed to be ready to kill someone.

"But, didn't Gul'Gen say-"

"He said nothing!" Samus exploded at the chief of police, "The Old Bird didn't say anything! None of this is true! Ridley is a liar I swear on my mother's grave that if I ever see him again, one of us will die."

"Samus, you might want to calm down for a minute, drink some tea, or-"

"Shut up!"

Samus stormed off, leaving Hardy alone in the hallway. Hardy stood there for a minute, then picked up his cell phone and dialed a local number.

"Doctor, I want 20 CCs of C-1418 ready for me. Wait until I arrive."

* * *

Houston rolled over in his little hospital bed. He hated those things. A sharp needle of pain sprung up through his shoulder. He hated those even more. He reached up with his good arm and pressed the call button. The doctor told him to press it if he felt so much as a small twinge of 

pain. This was more like an execution.

About twenty minutes later, when he had given up on seeing the doctor's little blue face again, he finally entered.

"You called, sir?" He said quietly. Dr. Myff was always a little too quiet for his profession.

"Yeah. You said to call you if I feel any pain. Well, right now it feels as though the Kihunters are waging their war inside my shoulders. Satisfied?

Dr. Myff shrank a bit (as he always did) and responded quickly and quietly, "Thank you. I just wanted to know that. Good-bye!"

Houston stared in shock and dismay as Dr. Myff left the room. What on earth...?

* * *

"Are you sure that we should be doing this? I mean, there's enough here to put a Dragon under!" 

"My point exactly." At this point, James Hardy wondered if even this would work on Samus. There was a specific look in her eyes that he had only seen once before: when the hatchling died.

Not a good thing.

Not a good thing at all.

"Come on, chairman. I'll need your help."

Chairman Keaton followed behind Hardy, not quite ready to abort this backup plan. If Hardy was right, and Samus was falling apart at the seams, maybe she did need to be knocked out for a few hours. Or more.

* * *

Ridley stood over a precipice on the asteroid, contemplating whether or not he should jump and end it right now. He stood there, wavering, ready to go. He took one step and then... 

Stopped.

* * *

Samus was sitting on her bed, daydreaming of blowing up Ridley when her door buzzer rang. Annoying little thing. 

She stepped up to the door.

"Come in," she said, not caring who it was.

She opened the door to Hardy, the chairman, and about four extra-large security guards trying to tackle her.

Hardy appeared to be holding a hypodermic needle.

Her survival instinct picked up and she dodged the first two guards, threw the third, and landed a flying kick on the fourth's head that might have killed him.

The other two regrouped and both grabbed her by an arm.

She flipped them back like paper dolls.

Samus turned around, ready to pummel someone else, then suddenly felt a sharp pain in her side.

She let out a yelp and collapsed on Hardy, who had just used the aforementioned hypodermic needle.

"Get her off me!" Hardy shouted very loudly.

Keaton eased Samus off him, exclaiming, "She's not really that big! How heavy could she be?"

"Muscle weighs more than fat." He looked down at Samus, and a worried expression crossed his face.

"I didn't expect it to work that fast! Is she all right?"

"Check for a pulse." Keaton said, not quite worried.

* * *

"How soon is soon?" Schneider asked The Master. He had been bugging It for the entire day now, and had decided to be persistent to the point of annoying. 

The Master turned around and simply said, "SOON."

They both were very persistent.


	4. Project Ceern (II)

**CHAPTER SIXTEEN: PROJECT CEERN (II)**

It was a beautiful day on Planet Ghanis. Children were playing in the streets, people were going about their business, and overall everything was going perfectly right.

Parcimar Taibos sat down on a bench and unfolded today's newspaper. It was a joy that paper wasn't completely obsolete now.

All of the headlines were about the Kihunters' more recent assaults on wherever. Parcimar sighed. Couldn't one day go bye without mention of them?

As he thought this, something came in and blotted out the sun. It looked like a total eclipse.

Parcimar Taibos put down his paper and looked up. This was no eclipse. Within minutes a small shuttle landed in the middle of West Park, and people started panicking; it was definitely Kihunter.

Parcimar, though, stood up and looked at the shuttle. It was totally different from any known Kihunter ship. It looked as though it could be carrying some sort of cargo.

The backway opened.

Metroids poured out.

Parcimar dropped his morning tea and panicked with the crowd. it was known what Metroids could do if given the chance.

Panic set in of the worst kind. People were running everywhere, trampling each other, daily business forgotten.

Parcimar Taibos watched in horror as one by one people, children even, were flailing around with Metroids attached, sucking their lifeblood away.

As Parcimar turned to run away, he felt a hard shove in his right arm and fell over. A rather large woman (Evidently the cause) ran over him, causing his bad knee to act up again.

Taibos started to get up in spite of the pain but was soon trampled on by more and more large women.

_Is there some sort of weight loss convention going on?_ he thought to himself, before turning and seeing a Metroid eyeing him in the chaos.

"Easy now," He said rather calmly as he moved back, trying to find a handhold with which to pull himself up, "Nice Metroid. Very nice."

The Metroid only let out a sort of low growl. Parcimar's hands found the bench that he sat on, now completely knocked over.

Parcimar pulled himself up, "Nice Metroid. Very nice." he repeated.

Just as he turned away it struck, slamming him into the pavement and sinking its teeth deep into his body.

Parcimar Taibos let out one last scream before everything went black.

* * *

Everything turned into sort of a fuzzy haze. Samus squinted to try to see better. She was in a hospital room, all right. There was an IV unit next to her, feeding her calming drugs (Or so she could tell from that lightheaded feeling she was experiencing).

Where was she? How did she get here? WHAT ON EARTH WAS GOING ON?

Those were the only questions going through her mind at the time.

Samus sat up and found that she was sitting on a hospital bed (big surprise). What's more, with the exception of Samus, the entire room was empty.

A few fuzzy memories came back to her, and she remembered flipping out and getting drugged by Hardy.

"Great! Just great!" She said out loud, falling back into a reclining posture and falling asleep minutes later.

* * *

Ridley sat alone. He had decided not to commit suicide, but had no idea of what to do now. Things were beyond his control. He assumed that eventually he would have to get off this asteroid and do something, but what that something was he could not answer.

Meanwhile, on Tsebnash, thousands of ships left towards their next target. Earth.

Although Earth was nothing more than a medium-sized little blue planet, it had historical significance. It was the Humans, that weak little Earth race, who started the federation. Earth was look at as a historical landmark. It has also been recently restored to its former beauty before space travel (gotta love those historians). The main Federation headquarters were also in that system. To destroy or conquer it would Break the back of the Federation and end this war. The ships traveled slowly, for the sake of cover.

**CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: DAZED AND CONFUSED**

Dr. Myff stepped into Samus' little hospital room and woke her up.

"Hello, ms. Aran. Feeling better? I hope so. I am taking the liberty of adding a few heavy tranquilizers to your dosage, just to keep you from doing anything rash. Please hold still, although this will hurt a lot, you'll fell better in no time."

He raised up a dripping syringe. Always one for those old-fashioned hypodermic needles, Dr. Myff was. He seemed to enjoy it.

Samus was already feeling better, thank you very much, and she hated needles. Besides, she had a little plan cooked up in the back of her mind.

Samus knocked the good doctor out with an extremely good backhand, considering the fact that she'd been officially on prescription drugs for the last several hours, clumsily unhooked the IV unit (Remember, the drugs), and also clumsily put on Dr. Myff's lab coat. Samus rushed back toward her quarters, hoping against hope that no one would recognize her along the way.

* * *

Hardy ran towards Keaton, sweat pouring down his face in little rivets.

"Chairman!" he shouted, "Something has been detected, moving towards us! We think it's a Kihunter fleet, but no fleet is that huge! Here! The readings!"

"Stop babbling and give me the satellite readings!" Keaton grabbed the pad from Hardy. He stopped.

"Sound the alarm! I want as much of the fleet possible here! Help!"

Apparently, The chairman could panic too.

* * *

Samus ran full speed down the hallways of the station. Luckily for her, everyone seemed too absorbed in some emergency to notice a brunette in a lab coat running sideways down the hallway, crashing into everything in sight (remember the drugs).

Well, one person noticed her. Houston, who was fully suited up and on his way to his ship.

"Samus, what the heck are you doing!" was the best he could manage.

""no timetotalkI've...drugged."

"Ahh. I see. I know they drugged you. Now, what are you doing here?"

"Running off the effectsofhtedfrugs, can't you see? I thought your rightarmwas impaled;"

Houston took a minute to understand what his best friend was saying, then finally answered.

"They gave me some happy pills!" He held out a pill bottle. This conversation was getting very interesting.

"givemeon-" Samus slurred.

"What?" Houston said.

Samus somehow managed the coordination to grab the pill bottle and down a little white pill. She handed the bottle back to Houston.

"Here," She managed to say, "ifyouwoulden'tmindineedtogobacktomyquartersandsuitupsopleaseeitherhelpmegetthereorgetoutofmyway."

Samus stumbled past him and would have fallen had Houston not caught her.

"Here, I'll help you back." He had long ago realized that arguing with Samus was not a good thing.

* * *

Dr. Myff Ran to Hardy.

"Sir," he said, "Samus escaped! And what's worse, I fell on my own hypodermic needle and..."

He fainted (because of the drugs).

"I can't deal with that right now! I have to lead a bunch of ships! Bye!"

Hardy ran out of there as quickly as his short stubby legs could take him. Today just wasn't his day.

* * *

Houston waited outside of Samus' quarters while she got into her suit, taking much longer than usual (gee, I wonder why).

Eventually, though, she stumbled out the door.

Grabbing Houston's shoulder for support, Samus said,

"I think the happy pill is starting to work. I can speak coherently again. My ship's around the corner. let's go."

"Uh, Samus, exactly what are we doing?"

"Going to my ship, of course!"

"To help Defend Earth and all of the Federation?"

"Of course!"

"So we're fighting with the Federation fleet?"

"What?"

"You don't know?"

"Know what, Houston?"

"You have been out of it for a while! A massive Kihnter fleet is heading towards Earth! We've been called to defend it!"

"That's odd. I was thinking of heading to Tsebnash to finish this!"

"Those drugs really did a number on you!"

"Think about it," Samus said, "If there are so many ships leaving Tsebnash, then it should be relatively empty, right?"

"Right..."

"Then, now's our time to strike! We have one chance to destroy The Master! Besides, do you really think we'll win out here?"

Houston thought for a minute. "No, you're right," he said, "We'll take your ship. Let's go!"

**CHAPTER NINETEEN: THE FINAL ASSUALT**

Samus Aran and Armstrong Houston entered Samus' ship to leave on what

was obviously a suicide mission.

"Felling any better?" Houston asked Samus.

"I think so. Those drugs have about worn off, and that happy pill..."

Samus interrupted herself to run over to the single restroom in the ship and vomit.

"I think I'd better drive." Houston remarked.

The ship left the docking bay and went out into deep space. Samus returned slowly to the cockpit and sat in the copilot's seat.

"Houston, punch in Tsebnash's coordinates, then press that little red button that doesn't look as though it belongs there."

"What?"

"Just do it. it'll get us there faster."

Houston looked at the controls. They all seemed fine, except for this red button obviously put in fairly recently hanging from a cheap piece of metal that was nailed to the control panel.

He muttered something and complied.

The ship roared off somewhat faster than those little racing ships. Both people were lurched back into there seats.

"We should be there several hours early!" Samus shouted above the roar of the engines, "It's a custom job! Do you like it?"

Houston didn't hear. He was too busy trying to keep his stomach from emptying its contents on the dashboard.

* * *

Chairman Keaton looked at the full fleet that he could get. At that point he realized that there really was no way for them to win this war. But they would fight. That was already decided on. They were all going to die, but why not take a few with them?

Warpgates upon warp gates opened in front of them, and thousands of Kihunter ships and Planetkillers emerged. Keaton turned a paler shade of green. He gave the order to fight. This was the beginning of the end.

* * *

While Keaton gave that order, a lone yellow ship came out of maximum warp drive in front of Tsebnash. It sped down to the planet, the last beacon of hope. But it was not alone.

* * *

Samus' ship touched down in a valley as close to the strongest underground energy reading as possible. Samus and Houston emerged. There was a light rain.

"Samus, are you sure that you're all right?"

"Yes, Houston. I'm fine. You?"

"As fine as I'll ever be. Does this remind you of anything?"

Samus looked around.

"Yeah, it does. It reminds me of the ruins back in Zebes after the space pirates came in." She looked around and saw a familiar blue door in a rock wall. "Well, shall we go in?"

* * *

The battle raged over Earth. Multiple ships on either side were being constantly blown up. Five planetkillers had gone down. So had ten Federation flagships. Hardy looked down from the ship that he was commanding. His particular ship had sustained more than enough damage, but was holding its own. A kihunter ship crashed into the one kink in its armor, and knocked out most of the deflector shields, broke the ship in two, and totaled the weapons. Hardy prayed a silent prayer that this nightmare be ended soon, whichever way it was to end, may it end soon.

* * *

The tunnels on Tsebnash were incredibly vast, but empty. Samus and Houston went slowly through them, as though a sound would cause the very walls to attack. Eventually, they ended up outside again, where there was a small insectoid robot. The robot looked at them, and muttered a bit in some binary language. Lights above the doors turned on, and the trap sprung.

Hundreds of Kihunters poured in from everywhere, coming after Samus and Houston.

"Well, Houston, this is it!" Samus said as she armed her arm cannon.

* * *

Back over Earth, a huge warp gate opened. The largest planetkiller imaginable came throughOut of it poured more Kihunter ships. Its shields were too strong to take any damage. It moved towards Earth.

"Sir! The main weapons grid just crashed! We can fire one more shot, then we're through!"

Hardy looked gravely at the admiral who just gave him that order. This was it. One shot. One last cigarette before the firing squad.

"Ready all weapon systems. Aim at the large ship. We have one shot left, let's make it count.

"Fire on my mark. Three... Two... One... What the...?"

Suddenly even more warp gates opened, but emerging from these were not Kihunter ships. They were of a different kind.

A voice came over the intercom to all Federation ships, "We are the Chozo. We have prepared for this moment for all of history. Our word is broken. Now, we can kill. Kihunters, feel our wrath!"

"Gul'Gen, is that you?" Keaton shouted.

"Yes. I am here."

The Chozo ships started tearing through the Kihunter forces as though they were dried up leaves.

"Forget firing that last shot for now," Hardy said, "Concentrate on repairing this ship while we can. I want to be able to get back in the fight!"

The battle raged on, but for once there was hope.

**CHAPTER TWENTY: TSEBNASH**

While the battle raged on above Earth, another battle was fought on Tsebnash. Samus and Houston had been driven back into the turning passageways of the planet by the hordes of Kihunters, and the situation was intense.

To conserve ammo for The Master, Samus had switched to her grappling beam and was now using iit to electrocute any nearby bugs. She also cut them in half with her built-in screw attack.

Houston was just shooting everything, everywhere. What neither of them noticed was that the Kihunters were driving them back, and slowly separating them.

The texture of the ground beneath them had changed to rock. Samus noticed that there was a room directly below her, telling from the echoes. She also noticed that the floor was cracking.

But she noticed it too late.

Before Samus could do anything, her portion of the floor gave in, and she plummeted down with it.

Houston turned towards he. "Samus!" He shouted, before one of the bugs picked him up and threw him against the wall, no, check that, threw him against a door. A door! Houston opened it, all the while blasting bugs, then took out something special that he had kept in his suit: a power bomb.

Houston braced himself against the inside of the door, ready to jump back. He froze a couple Kihunters that were directly in front of him so they would block any more bugs, and threw the power bomb into the crowd.

"Here's a present!' He shouted, as he turned and dove for cover.

The explosion shook the caverns. Light and flame emanated through the room that held the bugs. The entire room that Houston was just in caved in. It would never be used again.

The man who was Samus' brother (without even knowing it) breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to rest a bit before going on. His breather was short-lived, though, as a missile hit him from behind and threw him to the ground.

Houston looked up to see another bounty hunter, this one in a black suit.

Schneider.

"Well, well, well, Houston. Fancy running into you here," Schneider sneered. He kicked Houston.

"Well, enough of the small talk. Now, I must bid you adieu."

He leveled his arm cannon at Houston and prepared to fire.

* * *

The battle over Earth continued. The addition of the Chozo was wonderful, albeit mysterious, but it obviously wasn't enough. The Kihunters would eventually win by means of sheer number.

Hardy's ship had been somewhat repaired to the point that he could sit in the outskirts and shoot down ships, but any major use of firepower would crash the ship's systems.

The huge Kihunter Planetkiller had actually retained some damage, and its shields wre down to the point that people could damage it now, but it was just too big to take any damage. The only real damage done was when a Chozo ship managed to crack the central orb just before the Planetkiller destroyed it.

Even though the situation was impossible, the Federation kept fighting.

* * *

Samus woke up with a jolt. She couldn't tell where she was, or how far she had fallen. Telling from the sound that got her up, Houston had succeeded in blowing something up. She couldn't be that far down, but it was too dark to tell. Samus turned on her night vision and started to step through the room that she was in. It was vast, incredibly vast, and dark, so dark that she couldn't see very far anyway.

What was worse was that it was quiet. Completely quiet in an eerie way.

Then she heard it. A chirp. A single chirp. She recognized that chirp, but couldn't place it. Samus picked up her pace and began to scan everywhere, if only she could see!

* * *

Schneider laughed to himself softly as he started to pull the trigger...

And was knocked to the ground hard by Houston's fist.

Houston got the rest of the way up and charged at Schneider, who was getting up. Hurling himself on Schneider, the college football champion easily tackled him like an insect.

Houston wrenched off Schneider's helmet and started pounding on him with a metal-gloved fist. Now he would get him back for all of the slimy, traitorous things that he did.

* * *

Samus heard another chirp right next to her, and turned around to see what she had least expected.

A metroid.

The Metroid lunged, and with her lightning-quick reflexes Samus froze it with her ice beam and blew it up with a couple missiles. She looked at its remains and wondered to herself how on Earth...? Several more chirping Metroids swooping in for the kill interrupted her.

Samus froze them and ran for the door. If her ears were telling the truth, this place was a virtual nest of Metroids. Bad news.

* * *

Houston got up when he was convinced that Schneider wasn't going to follow him. The man was a bloody mess. Houston thought that he could have killed him. It would have served the creep right, but Houston didn't want to waste the ammo. He ran forward, tracking down that energy source. It was very close, and the sooner it was destroyed, the better. 


	5. The MASTER

** CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: THE MASTER**

Over Earth, the tide had turned again, but this time it was the wrong way. The Kihunters were winning by sheer number alone, and although the Chozo ships were powerful, there were only a few of them.

The front of the giant Planetkiller opened up, and it started charging for one perfect shot that would cut through the Federation fleet and destroy definitely more than just Earth. It was ending.

* * *

Samus ran, the Metroids hot on her tail. She could almost feel the energy pulating from their jellyfish-like bodies. Their shrieks started to sound triumphant.

Samus couldn't tell how many there were, but judging from the sound, there were more than she alone could handle. Samus tripped on a rock and the metroids got her.

They crowded in on top of her, scrambling to suck out her life like a swarm of flying leeches.

A huge one settled on her back, and Samus could feel its teeth starting to penetrate her armor. Any second now that protective layer of metal would be fully penetrated, and then...

Something knocked the Metroid off Samus, and the others lept off like flies do when one of them is swatted.

Samus looked up and sw, of all things, Ridley, getting all the Metroids off her.

She stood up and backed off.

Ridley impaled a Metroid with his tail.

"Go. Now. I'll hold them off."

Not one to argue, Samus ran as Ridley held off the Metroids. She got out of the room alive, and was soon followed by Ridley.

Samus stopped and leveled her arm cannon at him.

"Stay right there. I'm not falling for it again.

"Samus," Ridley voiced, "I may not have earned it, but you have to trust me now!"

"I'm sorry. I've trusted you enough for one lifetime.'

"Samus, even though we really aren't on the best of terms now, we have been forced to fight against a common enemy!"

"Oh, really? Did The Master coach you on what to say over tea yesterday?"

"Look, he destroyed my home planet! I'm not on his side anymore."

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't shoot you now, Ridley!"

"What choice do you have?"

There was a loud chirp. A Metroid made a dent in the door. Samus lowered her arm cannon.

"I'm going to regret this. Come on, let's go!"

* * *

Huge electric beams arced from the giant Planetkiller as it prepared to fire the one shot that would end it all. The beam was aimed so it would destroy both the Federation command ship, and Earth.

Hardy saw it coming, and made a decision.

"I want you to concentrate all possible firepower on that big ship! I don't care what it does to our systems!"

"But sir!" a commandant protested, "If we do that, we'll be floating dead in space! We'll be dead in no time!"

"I didn't get this job by making easy decisions. We have one shot at this, let's make it count!"

Hardy's ship charged up its main laser cannon, then fired its last shot directly at the central orb of the planetkiller.

The orb glowed brightly as it prepared to fire, and then Hardy's laser hit it dead center.

The orb cracked completely, and a part of the main shell broke off, revealing the inner workings of the ship.

The Planetkiller backfired, and erupted in a flaming blast rivaling the explosions of the many planets that it had destroyed in the past.

The shockwaves from the explosion tore apart any ships directly adjacent to the planetkiller, and the flying debris destroyed even more.

The power on Hardy's ship failed completely, and what was left of the crew rushed to get into some sort of spacesuit while the life support still lasted.

Cheers rose up from the remaining Federation and Chozo ships.

* * *

The hallways were turning metallic, Samus notd. A sign that something big was near.

Suddenly, Several hatches opened in the ceiling and hordes of Kihunters poured out like angry hornets, sswarming in on Samus and Ridley.

Samus immediately started shooting frantically at them as Ridley tore at them with his tail.

The two ran for the door at the first break, only to be blocked by about fifteen more bugs. Ridley charged ahead into the fray, lashing out at anything with an exoskeleton.

"Samus, go! While they're occupied!"He said, as the Kihunters swarmed after him.

Samus took his advice and ran past the door into an empty room with about five doors in it.

The door behind her slammed shut and locked, sealing away the sounds of battle in the corridor behind.

Out of the shadows in the room stepped The Master.

"WELCOME, BOUNTY HUNTER. YOU ARE SKILLED TO HAVE FOUND US. NOW, YOU WILL MEET YOUR END."

* * *

Houston ran down the corridors of Tsebnash, blasting bugs and metroids alike as he ran.

The metroids only partly surprised him, he was ready for anything. All that he ould think of was ending this game. The halls turned metallic.

* * *

Samus raised her arm cannon and fired a super missile at The Master.

The Master caught it easily and threw it back at Samus. Samus barely dodged it by throwing herself to the ground and firing everything she had at The Master.

It was all deflected.

The Master let out a small laugh and raised Its hand into the air.

Samus was lifted up by an unknown presence and thrown back onto the ground. The Master started firing eye lasers at her.

A door opened. Houston ran in, and came to a screeching halt when he saw who else was there.

"Samus? I thought you were-"

"Save it, Armstrong! Shoot!"

Houston complied, blasting The Master with his remaining ammo. Not a dent was made.

The Master opened its mouth. A light started to glow inside. Before this new attack could be experienced, though, a part of the wall caved in.

And, standing there, was Ridley (although he looked as though a Mack truck had hit him).

"DOES EVERYONE HAVE A KEY TO THIS PLACE?"

"Congratulations, Master, you seem to have grasped the concept of humor perfectly." Ridley sneered.

"VERY WELL. WE CONSIDERED LEAVING YOU ALONE, RIDLEY. BUT NOW YOU SHALL JOIN IN YOUR FRIENDS' FATE!"

Fire blazed from his mouth at Ridley, who dodged it with his trademark agility.

Ridley lunged in, and instead of trying to shoot The Master, like everyone else, he jammed his tail through Its forehead.

The Master lurched back, clutched its forehead, and silently exploded.

"Well, that was anticlimactic." Samus said.

A door opened. An all-too familiar voice resonated out.

"COME INTO MY PARLOR, SAID THE SPIDER TO THE FLY."

**CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: THE VOID**

"I guess we're supposed to go in there?" Samus said, her usual enthusiasm lacking at this point.

Ridley took in a deep breath and said, "Past that door is The Control, a huge computer that The Master would link up to sometimes. I don't know much about it."

"THAN PERHAPS I SHOULD FILL YOU IN."

"Is it just me, or did It refer to Itself in the singular sense?"

"It's not just you."

"Go ahead, fill us in!"

"COME IN."

They went into the room. Inside was the Control, an incredibly huge supercomputer.

Houston raised up his arm cannon.

"If this is The master, then shouldn't we destroy it?"

The Master's voice emanated from the computer.

"IF YOU DO THAT, THEN I WILL GO FREE AND YOU WILL LOSE. I AM A DUAL

BEING, LIVING IN A PLANE OTHER THAN YOURS. THIS COMPUTER PROVIDES YOU ACCESS TO MY REALM. SAMUS ARAN, I WILL GIVE YOU THE PRIVILEGE OF FACING

ME ON MY OWN GROUND, THROUGH HERE."

A chair with a VR headset came out of a port in the wall.

"ENTER."

"It means, hook up.'

Samus sat down on the chair.

"Samus, do you really want to do this?"

"No."

She removed her helmet. The visor attached automatically and Samus was thrown out of this reality.

* * *

Chairman Keaton looked out the main front monitor of his command ship and saw something interesting.

A dead ship in space.

"That's Hardy's ship!" He shouted to himself.

"Sir, that's the ship that destroyed the Kihunter flagship."

"I don't care what it did earlier, I care about who's on it! Are there any survivors?"

"Scanning...yes, sir. About twenty-five."

"Twenty-five out of a hundred-fifty."

"Then let's rescue them!"

Keaton's flagship made a 30 degree turn and charged through all the other ships until it reached Hardy's.

Keaton raised the ship via intercom (personal intercom with the individual passengers- the ship's system was destroyed).

"Excalibur raising Pork Roast, can anybody respond?"

"Chairman, is that you?"

"Hardy! You're alive!"

* * *

Samus woke up in a daze. She squinted her eyes in the sheer brightness of wherever she was.

She looked around. There was no landscape, not even a ground for all she knew. It was simply light. Pure, multicolored light. And yet definitely so much more.

Samus looked at herself. She appeared to be normal, in her suit, but something seemed wrong.

_Your eyes deceive you. They see only what they can see. all that you will see here is a representation of the truth_.

"Who said that?" She shouted to the infinite depths of this void of pure light.

_I did._

Something appeared in front of Samus that haunted her worst nightmares for the rest of her life.

* * *

Physically It was shaped something like a spider, that is, if spiders were twenty stories tall, had twelve legs, had a definite head with the norm of two eyes and a mouth, and had arms.

Samus could see a definite resemblance between The Master's robotic head and Its real one.

Except for the fact that everything was different, they were somewhat similar.

Two eyes sat on Its head, lit by a blindingly white flame. In Its mouth, behind the teeth that dripped blood, not saliva, was another void, this one full of stars and systems, planets and galaxies that The Master had devoured in its campaigns.

Between Its two twelve-fingered hands was what looked like an entire solar system, the miniscule planets running in their constant orbit around their tiny sun.

Over Its back there were more views of galaxies and systems that it had conquered, only these were still in their former glory.

It was terror beyond imagining, evil beyond description.

You are out of your league.

* * *

Keaton's ship stopped over Hardy's and an escape pod was sent over to the destroyed flagship.

"Hardy, I want you and your survivors to board this ship when it arrives. Remain calm. The pilot will fly it back in to mine. James, I was wrong about you. You're not such a wimp, after all."

The ship arrived and was boarded. Keaton sat back in his chair. things were going well.

There was a loud crash.

Keaton stood up hurriedly.

"What was that?" He asked frantically.

"Sir, five Kihunter ships approaching, and they're mad, sir!"

"What?"

Keaton looked at the monitor. Five Kihunter fighters were blasting through everything in their way in an effort to reach the Excalibur while it was defenseless. Another one of their shots hit home.

The shields were almost down.

From out of nowhere one of the Chozo ships rammed the five fighters and sent them floating dead in space. The Chozo ship nearly destroyed itself in the effort.

"Keaton-" Came over the intercom. It was obvious who owned that voice.

"Gul'Gen?" Keaton shouted, "Stay there! We're coming!"

It seemed that Keaton's ship was going to be on salvage duty for the rest of the battle.

* * *

The Thing in front of Samus opened Its mouth wide, like a fish gaping for food. Samus felt herself being sucked into the void inside, to join the billions of dead worlds inside.

Enter, your way to oblivion

Samus ran the other way; found herself able to resist the newly created vortex, as long as...

She felt something grab her by the ankle and trip her. Samus looked back and saw that The Master's tongue, covered in a vile acidic saliva, had grabbed her by the ankle and was pulling her inside of that gaping void that was its mouth.

She struggled to pull free, as It tightened its grip by wrapping Its tongue around her torso, and started to pull her in like some warped fisherman in a world where fishing for men was taken literally.

Samus felt herself being lifted from the ground(?) and being pulled closer, closer to Its massive head.

She was almost there now. A few more yards...

Samus raised her arm cannon and fired everything possible into Its flaming white eye.

Nothing hit. Samus began to lose hope, then a thought struck her.

Wait a minute! this is a mental battle, right? Then I have to put some extra thought into this, will the shots to do some damage, then I might have a chance!

She fired again, this time one single shot, no panic, into the same target.

The shot hit home, and The Master's right eye burst outward in a cascade of black acidic blood that fell down beyond infinity. Some of the drops stayed floating there, like something in a still photograph.

The white flame in one eye went out.

The Master shrieked out in pain and dropped Samus. The vacuum was gone. The Master backed away, clutching the bloody crater that was once Its eye; and disappeared.

A low gurgling noise came from the remaining drops of blood that hung there in the air(?).

* * *

Houston saw Samus jerk in the chair, evidently in pain. He ran towards

her.

"I have to get her out! She's dying in there!"

Ridley stopped him with a firm hit from his tail.

"Don't! If you disconnect her now, before the battle is finished, she will die! If you really care about her then let her go! You have to wait it out. We have to wait it out."

Ridley said a silent prayer for Samus Aran, the bounty hunter and hero of the Galactic Federation, who was now facing an evil beyond the Mother brain, beyond the Queen Metroid, beyond him, beyond anything that she had ever known to exist.

* * *

Samus looked at the droplets of blood the way a camper looks at a wild bear that just killed his tent buddy. Something was wrong here.

As if to answer her, the drops all turned toward her, revealing newly formed mouths with razor-sharp teeth, moving like little circular saws in their mouths. They charged.

Samus shot the one at the front of the pack. It blew up and scattered everywhere into mini droplets that also grew teeth and came after her.

"What the-"

She switched weapions to her ice beam and started freezing them all. They stayed in their places, frozen solid. Until they thawed three seconds later.

Stupid piece of mail order- OW! She thought to herself as they swarmed all over her and started tearing into her suit. She could even feel some of the pain while the blood droplets were still on the surface of her suit, ripping in.

Samus pulled out a power bomb and detonated it, focusing on two things; what she wanted the bomb to do, and what she wanted it not to do.

As hoped for, the bomb's shockwave explosion vaporied the little droplets of blood and missed her entirely.

"I think I'm starting to get the hang of this!" She said to herself as she prepared for The Master's next attack.

Instead, she got a familiar voice shouting "Samus!'

"What?" She turned around and faced Armstrong Houston.

"What are you doing here?"

"Saving your life!" Her brother shouted, holding out his hand, "The Master's left, but he's set the planet to blow! Grab on! We have to get out of here!"

Samus hesitated a little.

"Come on!" Houston said even more urgently, "I don't want to lose my sister now that I just found her!'

Samus started to hold out her hand, then stopped.

"You almost fooled me," she said, retracting her hand, "I never told Houston that we were related."

Immediately the Not-Houston changed into a gangrenous, rotting corpse of a brother.

"This is what will happen to you and to your brother, and to everyone you hold dear!"

The master disappeared again, and a shrill chirp was heard.

"No! Don't do this to me!" Samus shouted.

* * *

Keaton was finally finished rescuing everyone from both ships. Hardy and Gul'Gen

were with him on the bridge of the Excalibur.

"Gul'Gen," Keaton asked, "I thought that the Chozzo couldn't kill. How did you get around it?

"We had prepared for this day when we made that promise so long ago. You will probably never see these many Chozo in one place again. But now, do not be distracted; keep fighting!"

A very satisfied Chairman keaton turned back to the monitor and prepared to lead his fleet in defense of the Earth.

* * *

The shrill chirping continued. A huge Metroid appeared in front of Samus. Wait, check that. not just a huge metroid, but the Hatchling appeared.

"No!" Was all that Samus could say.

This was too much. Samus couldn't hurt the Hatchling, not after what happened on Zebes several months ago.

The hatchling descended on top of a helpless Samus Aran, and started draining energy immediately, Its teeth firmly implanted inside of her.

Samus strained. She couldnt shoot the Hatchling when it attacked on Zebes, and she couldn't shoot it now; only this time it wasn't going to let her go or help her. It was going to...

That's it! she thought, This isn't the Hatchling! This is just another of The Master's illusions!

Samus raised her arm cannon and fired everything possible into the Hatchling's red, pulsating brain.

Its insides exploded as the Not-Hatchling fell off Samus and let out one last chirp before evaporating into thin not-quite-air.

"That was the last straw," Samus said through gritted teeth as The Master, in Its original form reappeared.

"It ends NOW!" Samus shouted, as her hyper beam switched on, and she lept further up than is humanly possible, firing beams of pure destructive energy into The Master.

It tried Its earlier attack of sending out its tongue, but had to retract it when Samus blew half of it off.

The Master's other eye went in an explosion of blood and pus.

A shot went directly into its mouth, blowing up what was left of Its tongue and sending Its teeth flying out like little bloody missiles.

One of its hands blew off as It tried vainly to ward off the endless blows coming from Samus' gun.

The Master screamed as another barrage of Samus' lasers ripped off Its head and sent the entire thing plummetting down, down, down into the eternal depths below.

It was finished.

* * *

Over Earth, The Kihunter ships all stopped suddenly and in unison. They all floated dead in space as their pilots' brains exploded.

Cheers rose up among the Federation and the Chozo ranks.

Hardy prayed again, but this time in praise of a former prayer answered.

It was over. They had won.

**CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: ESCAPE**

Samus felt herself being jerked out of The Void and being thrown to the floor as the vhair on which she sat exploded. She hastily put on her helmet as a piece of twisted metal wreckage fell next to her.

"What is going on?" She shouted to Houston, who was nearby.

"The Master's death is taking the planet with it!' Ridley shouted above the now steadily rising earthquake.

"Not again!" Samus shouted, as she got up and the three of them ran out of the exploding computer room and into the hallways of Tsebnash.

"Here, I know how to get out!" Ridley shouted as he took the lead.

* * *

Schneider had a rude awakening with the earthquake's beginning. It didn't take him long to realize what had happened.

He ran for his parked ship outside. The Master might have been destroyed, but at least he still had his life.

Ridley, Samus, and Houston ran past the dead and dying kihunters as the hallway started to cave in. A rogue metroid was decimated as the wall next to it burst in a blast of rock and steam.

The ground started to crack and spew out lava, another testament to the fact that Tsebnash's destruction was going to be far worse than Zebes'.

More rocks fell from the ceiling. They quickened their pace.

"The passageway to the left is more direct; go that way!" Ridley shouted above the unearthly roar of the earthquake.

When they reached the end, the ceiling came down over the left hand door with a crash and buried it permanently.

"Okay, we go to the right."

They ran to the right as fast as possible to avoid the now increasing carnage.

* * *

Schneider got into his little black ship that he had tucked away in the cliffside and put the key into the ignition. It stalled.

He cursed loudly and hit the control panel. The engine started. Schneider breathed a sigh of relief as his ship started to rise along the cliffside. He looked out the windshield and saw a shadow descend on the front of his ship.

"What the-"

It was then that Schneider looked up from his ship and saw the one disadvantage to being near a cliff in an earthquake: cliff sides tend to collapse.

Locuthis Schneider let out one last scream as he and his ship were utterly crushed in the falling rubble.

* * *

Samus and Houston were using their speed booster to get down the now rapidly collapsing hallway; Ridley was flying like a bullet.

Everything was going down now. The doorway at the end was also blocked, making them come to a dead stop.

The ground lit up as it started to crack like an eggshell about to explode with pure molten rock.

Ridley grabbed both bounty hunters and flew through a newly formed gap in the ceiling as the ground beneath them exploded. They were in the final room now.

They ran through this last corridor as the floor collapsed inward and the ceiling caved in. Jets of steam burst from the walls. the occasional rock exploded.

Houston had gotten out; the rest were nearing the door.

A huge rock crashed from the ceiling and separated Samus from the others; Ridley flew back in to grab her.

Houston got a boulder off the ship. It would take a miracle for it to run now.

Ridley grabbed Samus and ran for the door.

Another boulder hit him on the back and he fell to the ground, dropping Samus.

The floor's steady caving in caught up with them, and Ridley started to fall.

Samus caught him with the grappling beam, and used what power she had left in it to try to bring him back up.

"Come on, don't die on me now!" She strained as she tried to lift him.

Another rock fell from the ceiling and hit Samus' arm, breaking both her arm and the grappling beam.

Ridley plummeted into the depths below.

"Ridley!" Samus shouted in vain as she saw Ridley fall.

"Samus! We have to go!' Houston shouted as he opened the hatch to the ship.

Samus turned and got inside of the ship. She felt an ache in her heart that was similar to when she had left Zebes without the Hatchling. She had even started to like him. Somewhat.

Houston prayed silently as he turned the key to the ignition. The engine stalled.

He shouted and hit the control panel. It still stalled. Lightning flashed in the skies outside.

"Here, let me do it!'

Samus opened a panel below and connected a few wires.

"Now try it!"

Houston turned the key again and Samus' ship reluctantly started and lifted off just as the ground beneath them melted.

They lifted off Tsebnash as the mountains turned red and slumped into pools of lava, as all the vegetation burned up, as it started to erupt.

The entire planet erupted in a flaming blast worthy of some of the planets that the Kihunters had destroyed in their past raids. One ship was seen rocketing out of that blast relatively charred, but with its passengers unharmed.

**CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: RESOLUTIONS**

Samus looked back at the flaming debris flying from the planet, and a small tear welled up for Ridley; more sympathy than he had ever gotten before for anything.

"What is it, Samus? I haven't seen you this emotional since-"

"Never mind, Houston. Just fly us back."

* * *

The celebrations of the victory were tremendous. All over Kihunter bodies were burned as the cleanup started.

On Earth, the main heroes of the war were decorated like kings. Now back to where we left off: the direct aftermath.

* * *

Houston supported Samus as they made their way down the corridors of the station to meet with The Chairman and Hardy, who said over the intercom that they had a lot to tell them.

They met with Hardy about halfway.

"You're here! Samus, houston, we-"

"Tell us on the way, Hardy. We're a little tired right now."

Hardy started walking with them to Keaton's office.

"So, Houston," he inquired, "How did you react when Samus told you that you were her brother?"

They stopped dead.

Houston turned towards Samus.

"What?"

"Sorry, I didn't have a chance to tell you. You're Solomon Aran."

"Is it okay if I still go by Armstrong A. Houston?"

"Fine by me. By the way, Hardy, in the future, use your big mouth for eating."

They laughed.

* * *

On Earth, there were more celebrations, ceremonies, and news crews then you could imagine.

In between the festivities, Samus, Houston, Keaton, Hardy, and Gul'Gen generally rested in a little room that could easily be blocked off from the news media. At those points in time, they each explained things about what happened on their side of the final battle.

As it turned out, Gul'Gen had left the station to rally up the Chozo at about the same time that Samus flipped out. The remaining Chozo had teamed up with the remaining Torizo to fight. The long enmity that had been going on between the two races was over.

Keaton had given back to the chozo and the Torizo their original planets, and had decided to make several laws for their protection, so they could once again flourish.

A few Metroids were gathered from Ghanis, so work on that little breed could easily continue.

For Ridley there would be a memorial service, not for who he was, but for who he became. His memory would live always as a symbol of redemption.

A knock came at the door.

"I told you, no interviews between 9:00 and 10:00!" Keaton shouted.

"Oh, I think you'll want to see me." came a voice from the other end.

"What? How?" Samus attempted to run toward the door (her arm was broken in three places, after all).

She unlocked it, and Ridley stepped in.

Sure, he looked as though someone had used him as a charcoal briquette, but it was Ridley.

"How did you survive the explosion?" Houston almost shouted.

"I didn't. I got off the planet before it blew up.

"And just how exactly did you do that?"

"I flew up through the ceiling and got out before it all blew up. My escape was probably narrower than yours because I can't take as much heat as your ship."

"Why didn't you come here earlier?"

"I couldn't I had to heal a bit first."

"Welcome back, Ridley. Welcome back."

Ridley sat down with the rest of them.

"Call the doctor for me before you use me as a float in the next parade, oxay? Also," he said, turning towards Samus, "Do you forgive me, for betraying everyone?"

"Don't worry, Ridley. I forgive you. We all do. My only question is, what are you going to do now?"

"If I live to the average lifespan of my species," Ridley said, "I should have about a hundred years left on me. That should be long enough to rebuild my life. I'll spend a lot of that time, though, with Gul'Gen."

They stopped talking and sat down to rest a little.

Today was going to be a busy day. A very busy day.

** THE END**


End file.
